
What is the Situation Now? 



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What is the Situation Now ? 



A REVIEW 



POLITICAL AFFAIRS 



SOUTHERN STATES 

"APfi S .1894*) 

^^^^^^^ 

ALBERT WEBB BISHOP, M. A., 

LATE ADJUTANT-GENERAL STATE OF ARKANSAS ; EX-PRESIDENT 
ARKANSAS INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY. 



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Copyright, 1894, by ALBERT W. BISHOP. 




MADE IN 

THE COMPLETE ART-PRINTING WORKS 

OF 

THE MATTHEWS-NORTHRUP CO. 

BUFFALO, N. Y. 



WHAT IS THE SITUATION NOW? 



Ill the year 1890 there was published by R. H. 
Woodward & Company, of Baltimore, a book entitled, 
" Why the Solid South ? or Reconstruction and its 
Results." Hilary A. Herbert, of Alabama, now sec- 
retary of the navy, is its compiler and most conspic- 
uous contributor. The object of the book, as stated 
by Mr. Herbert in the preface, is, " to show to the 
public and more especially to those business men of 
the North who have made investments in the South, 
or who have trade relations with their southern fellow- 
citizens, the consequences which once followed an 
interference in the domestic affairs of certain States 
by those who either did not understand the situation 
or were reckless of results ;" and reconstruction is 
successively treated of at Washington and in the 
States of Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, 
Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, 
Missouri, x\rkansas, Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana. 

Mr. Herbert writes the articles upon reconstruction 
at Washington, and in the State of Alabama, and the 
concluding chapter of the book — a contribution that 
he terms, " Sunrise." 

Zebulon B. Vance, a United States senator, takes 
care of North Carolina ; John J. Hemphill, an ex- 
member of congress, performs a similar office for 
South Carolina ; Henry G. Turner, a member of con- 
gress, does likewise for Georgia ; Samuel Pasco, a 

5 



6 JV/iaf is the Situation Now 2 

United States senator, for Florida ; Ira P. Jones, for 
Tennessee ; Robert Stiles, for Virginia ; O. S. Long 
and William L. Wilson, the latter a member of con- 
gress, and now chairman of the Committee on Ways 
and Means, for West Virginia ; George G. Vest, a 
United States senator, for Missouri ; Charles Stewart, 
an ex-member of congress, for Texas ; R. J. Sage, 
'for Louisiana, and William M. Fishback, now Gover- 
nor of the State, for Arkansas. 

" Each article," says Mr. Herbert, " is signed by its 
author, who thus becomes directly responsible for the 
truth of his statements." The book is dedicated "to 
the business men of the North," and though published, 
indeed, four years ago, and not undertaken, so says 
Mr. Herbert, "with any such impracticable, purpose 
as agitating for the repeal of the fifteenth amend- 
ment," still, very recent events in the Fifty-third Con- 
gress are of such a nature as to excite the gravest 
apprehension for the due enforcement of this very im- 
portant provision in our fundamental law. 

And while the excuse is the alleged propriety of 
the repeal of the Federal election statutes, this recently 
enacted legislation does not stop with brushing away 
the barriers previously existing against fraud in the 
choice of presidential electors and representatives in 
congress, but repeals the sections of the general stat- 
utes of the country that have been heretofore enacted 
to give force and effect to the fifteenth amendment of 
the Constitution of the United States. 

Inasmuch therefore as "Why the solid South?" is 
presented to "the business men of the North," as 
throughout a fair and unprejudiced statement of the 
principal facts and events of the reconstruction 



" IV/iy the Solid South ? " Unreliable. 7 

period; and is to-day a special source of inspiration 
to those men who are endeavoring to emasculate the 
fifteenth amendment, something will now be said 
with reference to this book, and attention then given 
to what is conceived to be a very serious condition of 
public affairs as now existing in a portion of the 
Southern States, and one that demands correction. 

For some time prior to the reconstruction period, 
during that entire period and for several years there- 
after, the writer was continuously a resident of the 
State of Arkansas. He will largely speak from per- 
sonal knowledge, and for that reason have nothing 
to say as to what occurred in other States during the 
reconstruction period, except to observe that if the 
presentation made in their behalf to '* the business 
men of the North " is as imfair and unjust as that for 
Arkansas, then "Why the solid South?" with all its 
array of contributors, is by no means entitled to 
the confidence of the men to whom the book is 
dedicated. 

In the article upon reconstruction in Arkansas, page 
306, Mr. Fishback, in making a comparison with sub- 
sequent Republican management, says : 

" Under Democratic rule the amount expended for 
State purposes for the two and one half years from 
April i8th, 1864, to October ist, 1866, was only $162,- 
000, or $64,000 per annum." 

The Government of the State of Arkansas, for the 
period "from April i8th, 1864, to October ist, 1866,"*- 
Mr. Fishback's two and one-half years — was not under 
Democratic rule at all. It was the Government of the 
Union men of the State, and was organized under and 
in pursuance of President Lincoln's proclamation of 



8 W/iat is the Situation Now ? 

December 8, 1863, for the reorganization of civil 
governments in the seceded States. So far as inter- 
ference with its establishment could take place, it met 
from the beginning with the bitter and persistent 
opposition of a large portion of that element in the 
politics of the State with which Mr. Fishback is 
now fraternizing. Much of this opposition was, in- 
deed, at the outset, within the rebel lines, but still it 
sought to prevent the organization of the new govern- 
ment. 

At that time Harris Flanagin was the Confederate 
Governor of Arkansas, with head-quarters at Washing- 
ton, Hempstead County, in the south-western portion 
of the State. The vote on the new constitution was 
to take place on the 14th, 15th and i6th days of 
March, 1864, and on the tQth day of the preceding 
February Governor Flanagin wrote to Lieutenant- 
General E. Kirby Smith, then commanding the trans- 
Mississippi department of the Confederate States, ask- 
ing for troops to prevent the holding of this election, 
particularly in the counties of North-western Arkansas, 
in which there was a large Union element. 

Upon this subject the following correspondence 

^ ■ " Head-Qrs. Trans. Miss. Dept. 

Shreveport, La., February 24, 1864. 

General, — I have the honor to enclose copy of a communi- 
cation from Gov. Flanagin asking that Col. Brooks be al- 
lowed to take five or six hundred cavalry to N. W. Arkansas, 
for the purpose of interrupting the elections to be held there in 
March, under federal protection. 

The Comd'g Gen'l commends to your consideration the im- 
portance of accomplishing the objects contemplated by Gov. 
Flanagin, and desires you, if you can do so without interfering 
with your operations in the field, to send such a number of men 



Military Interference. 9 

as you may think proper, under such officers as you may select, 

to N. W. Arkansas for that purpose. 

Very respectfully, your obt. serv't, 

E. CUNNINGHAM, 

Lieu.-Gen. T. H. Holmes, Lt. and A. D. C. 

^Q- . , Commanding: Dist. Ark. 

Official : ^ 

H. P. Pratt, A. A. Gen." 

For some reason Gen. Holmes did not act in this 
•natter, and Gov. Flanagin again wrote to Gen. 
Smith. Upon receipt of this second letter Gen. 
Holmes was once more communicated with, and this 
time with greater positiveness than in the first instance : 

" Hd, Qrs, Trans. Miss. Dept. 
Shreveport, La., March 4, 1S64. 
General, — I am directed by the lieutenant-general commanding 
to inclose you a copy of a communication from Gov. Flanagin with 
reference to the interruption of the State elections in North-wes- 
tern Arkansas. 

The lieutenant-general reiterates his desire, expressed in a com- 
munication of the 24th, ult., on this subject, that you do all in 
your power, consistent with the interests of the service, to forward 
the views of the governor. 

If it is practicable to send cavalry, as he suggests, and prevent 
the holding of these elections, great good may be accomplished. 
The commanding general commends this subject to your earnest 
consideration. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

E. CUNNINGHAM, 
Lt.-Gen. T. H. Holmes, Lt. and A. D. C. 

Comd'g Dist. Ark." 

The same day Gen. Smith wrote to Gov. Flanagin 

as follows : .^^^ r^ r^ tvt t^ 

"Hd. Qrs. Trans. Miss. Dept. 

Shreveport, La.. March 4, 1864. 
His Excellency, H. Flanagin, Governor of Arkansas. 
Sir, — I have fhe honor to acknowledge the receipt of your let- 
ter of the 27th Feb. I enclose copy of a letter which I have had 



lo What is the Situation Now ? 

written to Gen. Holmes, as also copy of one addressed to him 
on the receipt of your communication of the 19th of February, in 
relation to this same subject. I beg leave to state that any 
arrangement which Gen. Holmes may be able to make for the 
purpose of forwarding your views will meet with my approbation. 
I have the honor to be very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

E. KIRBY SMITH, Lt.-Gen." 

Reading between the lines it would seem that Gen. 
Holmes, as commander of the Confederate district of^ 
Arkansas, did not respond with alacrity, if he did at 
all, to the wishes of Gov. Flanagin, and the sug- 
gestions of Gen. Smith, then commander of the 
department, of which the State of Arkansas was a 
portion. 

At all events this election was not interfered with 
in North-western Arkansas, though the Confederate 
governor of the State was prompt enough, as these 
communications disclose, in the expression of an ear- 
nest desire to have this done. And while circum- 
stances that he could not control had compelled him 
to abandon the capital of the State as the seat of his 
own government, and to locate it miles away to the 
southwest, upon a sandy foundation in a double 
sense, at Washington, Hempstead County, Gov. 
Flanagin was still alert to crush, if he could, this new 
movement of the loyal men of the State. 

But that was not to be done; and a large vote, care- 
fully confined to eligible, bona fide citizens of the 
State, was polled in North-western Arkansas particu- 
larly, for the officers, who were to set the new govern- 
ment in motion — a government whose protective 
power was aided by that other and greater Washing- 
ton, where President Lincoln was holding the helm. 



The New Government. ' ii 

On the first day of June, 1861, the called session 
of the rebel convention (having previously assumed 
to take the State out of the Union without referring 
their action to the people) adopted a constitution for 
the State, which was substantially its old constitution 
with some changes strengthening its pro-slavery fea- 
tures and substituting the phrase, "Confederate States 
of America" wherever the "United States of America" 
occurred in the old instrument. So far,then,as the mem- 
bers of this convention could do so, they had pros- 
tituted the constitution of the State to the interests 
of slavery, and it was now thought necessary that an 
entirely new constitution should be presented to the 
people, rather than that amendments to the old one 
should be proposed. Taking this view of the case, 
the convention of 1864 submitted their labors, which 
resulted in the adoption of a new constitution for the 
State, by the vote of 12,177 ^or, to 226 against it. The 
immediate abolition of slavery was provided for, and 
all laws inconsistent with the new constitution were 
made inoperative and void. 

Pending the organization of the new government, 
Isaac Murphy was appointed provisional governor of 
the State, and on the i8th of April, 1864, was inau- 
gurated as governor, elected under the new constitu- 
tion. It was the first government of the kind put in 
operation, and, while heartily sustained by the Federal 
forces in Arkansas, still had many and serious diffi- 
culties to contend with. The public records of the 
old State government had been taken away, when in 
September, 1863, Gen. Steele took possession of 
Little Rock, the capital of the State, and the Confed- 
erate army evacuated it. 



12 



W/iat is the Situation Now ? 



In the month of December, 1862, the following 
resolution was adopted by the Confederate Legis- 
lature of the State, in secret session: 

" Resolved by the general assembly of the State of Arkansas : 
that the governor is hereby invested with authority to destroy 
such of the public property as cannot be conveniently removed, 
when in his judgment it shall become expedient to do so, to pre- 
vent the same from falling into the hands of the public enemy. 

Adopted by the House of Representatives in secret session 

December i, 1S62. 

JOHN A. HARRELL, 

Speaker of House of Reps. 

Adopted by the -senate, in secret session, December i, 1S62. 

THOS. FLETCHER, 
President of the Senate. 
Approved December i, 1862. 

H. FLANAGIN. " 

Books and papers could indeed be " conveniently 
removed " under ordinary circumstances, and no doubt 
were not in immediate contemplation when this reso- 
lution was adopted ; but it was, nevertheless, a good 
justification to have at hand should the movements 
of the enemy be so pressing that a destruction of 
public records even would become necessary. 

Other resolutions of this legislature more elaborate 
in their terms were adopted on the 27th and 29th 
days of November, 1862, and approved by Gov. 
Flanagin, December i, 1862, by which the removal of 
the seat of government was provided for, and the 
judges of the supreme court and the separate court 
of chancery were empowered to move the library and 
all books and papers belonging to their respective 
courts to the temporary seat of government. 

After the occupation of Little Rock by Gen. 
Steele, Washington, Hempstead County, became this 



Action of Prominent Cofifederates. 13 

"temporary seat," and the State records were taken 
to that place. The records of Pulaski County, of 
which Little Rock is the county seat, were spirited, 
first, into the woods of Saline County, not many miles 
south of Little Rock, and covered with a tarpaulin. 
But the better judgment of the wiser rebellious heads 
did not permit them to remain in this exposed condi- 
tion, and they were removed to a place of greater 
safety. 

President Lincoln's message to Congress, and the 
accompanying proclamation of December 8, 1863, 
were nowhere read with greater interest in the rebel- 
lious States than by the prominent men in Arkansas, 
who were at war with the general government ; and 
what was to be apprehended from the issuance of 
these two most important documents was very clearly 
understood by them. George C. Watkins of Little 
Rock (who had been a justice of the supreme court 
of the State, and was one of the most able and influen- 
tial men in Arkansas), moving with head-quarters, to 
which he seems to have been attached as a general 
adviser in matters of high importance, wrote a letter 
from Camden on the 24th day of December, 1863, to 
Gov. Flanagin, from which the following is an extract : 

" I have just read Lincoln's message and proclamation. It 
requires much thought and consideration. You ought to read 
and digest it carefully, and make it a topic in your address, so as 
to counteract, as far as possible, any evil efifects it may be calculated 
to have in Arl^ansas. It is absurd enough to a statesman, or a 
lawyer, but craftily devised to ensnare the unwary, and a fore- 
shadowing of Yankee domination, from which we may well pray 
God to deliver us." 

A little later on, January 31, 1S64, he again writes 
to Gov. Flanagin with reference to what he terms 



14 IVhat is the Situation Now 2 

the usurping government of Arkansas^ and further 
alludes to it in this wise: 

* ' Such a government as that set up, and in the hands of such 
men — you will see at a glance who they are — cannot stand, but 
will disgust our people unless they are driven to desperation by 
lawless acts of our soldiery and seek for safety in abject submis- 
sion. If we cannot, or do not, successfully cope with the enemy 
by force of arms, it ought to be a part of our Fabian policy to let 
our people experience what Federal rule and armed occupation are, 
and intend to be, and come to look upon our army as their friends. 
I fear this policy is not being pursued. Outrages are committed 
by marauding parties of our soldiery or hangers-on of the army, 
hardly excelled by any exploits of the enemy in that line — and 
as yet they go unpunished. 

" I think it of the first importance for you to have a conference 
with G^n. Holmes on that subject, and wish you would come 
up in person. Indeed, as all depends upon success of arms, I 
wish you could be much of the time about head- quarters to see 
what is going on, and give the military authorities the encourage- 
ment of your presence and counsel." 

Still later on, May 4, 1864, Elbert H. English of 
Little Rock, who was also a justice of the supreme 
court of Arkansas before the rebellion broke out, and 
at the time above indicated was a member of the Con- 
federate supreme court of the State, wrote likewise to 
Gov. Flanagin in relation to this new government. 
Like many other of the arch conspirators who were 
wandering from place to place, he was indulging in 
the fond delusion that the Confederate State govern- 
ment would soon be reestablished at Little Rock ; and 
in his letter to Gov. Flanagin thus delivers himself: 

" Point Comfort, May 4, 1S64. 
Dear Governor, — From all I can learn the way will soon be 
open for the State officers to return to Little Rock and administer 
the State government there again, for which event am I exceed- 



Difficulties Encounte7'ed. 15 

ingly anxious. Prudence, I would respectfully suggest, might 
require the surplus archives to remain at Washington for the 
present, and that such books and papers only, as are wanted in 
the active administration of the government, be taken to the 
capital. 

« "I am anxious to see these gentlemen who were connected 
with the State government, and have taken part in organizing 
Lincoln's bastard State government, I want to see how they 
look and what they have to say, Truly, etc., 

"E. H. ENGLISH." 

At the close of the war Judge Watkins and Judge 
English returned to Little Rock to reside, and they 
lived to its end under this odious State government, 
devised by President Lincoln, and which Judge Eng- 
lish particularly, had characterized by an epithet whose 
form is preserved as originally accentuated. 

This new government had much to contend with. 
The public records of the State had been removed, 
as we have indicated, when the Confederate army 
evacuated the capital in September, 1863, and there 
was not a dollar in the treasury. The State was still, 
in part, under disloyal control. Little Rock itself 
was threatened by the enemy, and this condition of 
affairs seriously affected the question of recognition, 
at that time, by the Congress of the United States. 
The judiciary committee of the Senate reported 
against the admission of the senators-elect ; and the 
judiciary committee of the House of Representatives 
in favor of the men chosen for admission into that 
body. While, therefore, during the continuance of 
the war this government failed of full recognition at 
Washington, it, nevertheless, was held intact ; and 
when the war closed, the exercise of its functions 
assumed a better form than was possible during the 



1 6 What is the Situation Now? 

existence of hostilities. A militia system was devised 
and put in operation, and the chaotic condition of the 
State gradually passed away. Still many of the old 
citizens who had been rebels in arms, and otherwise, 
were dissatisfied with this loyal State government. 
They began to plot against it, yet artfully assuming 
a quasi friendship, and in the summer and fall of the 
year 1865, initiated measures for holding an early 
convention at Little Rock. To a certain extent their 
efforts were successful and a gathering was held. 
Gov. Murphy, though invited to do so, did not 
attend it, but Gen. Sherman and Gen. Rey- 
nolds, the latter commanding the District of Arkan- 
sas, did ; and the members of the convention were 
practically told that they had better adjourn and go 
home, which they proceeded to do. 

About this time, and on the 30th day of October, 
President Johnson telegraphed to Gov. Murphy 
that there would be no interference with the State 
government organized as we have mentioned, and 
that the Federal government would give it all the aid 
in its power to render. 

For several months there was now substantial quiet, 
and in the spring of 18.66 the following letter was 
written to President Johnson : 

" Headquarters, State of Arkansas, \ 
Adjutant-General's Office. \ 

Little Rock, May 12, 1866. 
The PREsn)ENT of the United States : 

Dear Sir, — Presuming that you would be pleased lo know 
something of the financial condition of the present State govern- 
ment of Arkansas, Gov. Murphy desires me to send you the 
inclosed notice, published in all our city papers, and receiving 
general circulation throughout the State. 



Arkansas in 1866. 17 

Our entire debt since the creation of this government in March, 
1864. is $144,931 25 ; auditor's warrants redeemed, $106,198.42 ; 
balance outstanding, $38,732.83 ; which, with accrued interest, 
may possibly amount to $40,000, to meet which we have in the 
treasury $132,705.19 in U. S, currency. 

The State was probably never more quiet than to day. Gen- 
eral Reynold's wise administration of military affairs, and the 
governor's confidence in the masses, shown especially in his 
appointments, made without particular reference to the past, 
where the situation is cheerfully accepted, seem to be bringing 
back again the era of good feeling. Our general election takes 
place in August ; the legislature sits in November, and if no 
attempt is made by designing men to interfere with the present 
order of things, we shall continue to get along prosperously 
at home. 

With high regard, I have the honor to remain, 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

A. W. BISHOP, 
Adjt.-Gen. Arkansas, and Acting State Treasurer." 

The notice referred to in this letter was the fol- 
lowing : ., ,. . _ , _ 

° State of Arkansas, Treasurers Office, 

'' Little Rock, May 9, 1866. 

" Holders of auditor's warrants are requested to present them 
to the treasurer for payment on or before the 15th day of June 
next, as no interest will be paid after that time. 

"A. W. BISHOP, Acting Treasurer." 

About this period the differences between Presi- 
dent Johnson and the majority in Congress had become 
marked, and the element in Arkansas that had been 
opposing the Murphy government grew bolder. 
Attacks upon this government were now more fre- 
quently made, and a general election to be had in 
August stimulated the hostility. At that time the 
"iron-clad " oath had not made its advent, and the 
only special obligations necessary to be assumed by 
voters, who had been implicated in the rebellion, were 



1 8 What is the Situation Now ? 

those imposed by the proclamation of general am- 
nesty. The election came on. A new legislature 
was chosen and non-appointive State officers gener- 
ally, with the exception of the governor and secretary 
of State, who still had two years to serve. 

The members of the existing government who were 
candidates for reelection were defeated by very large 
majorities, and it soon became evident that the old re- 
bellious element was again master of the situation. 
The kindness and forbearance of Gov. Murphy 
were forgotten, and when this newly-created legisla- 
ture assembled in November it proceeded without 
delay to endeavor to embarrass what was left of the 
government of the Union men of the State. In his 
message to the general assembly. Gov. Murphy 
submitted for their consideration the proposed amend- 
ment to the Constitution of the United States, which 
is now known as the fourteenth, and in the submission 
said : 

" Judging from the results of the late elections, and from the 
decided tone of public sentiment in the States that subdued the 
insurrection, it is not probable that better terms will be granted. 
The effect of rejection on the prosperity and happiness of the 
people demands solemn consideration." 

This amendment was rejected, however, by an 
almost unanimous vote in both the Senate and House 
of Representatives. The governor also called atten- 
tion to the report of the adjutant-general of the 
State — a report submitted as a document accompany- 
ing his message — and in this connection saw proper 
to say : 

" Complete details of the organization of the several Arkansas 
regiments, with a succinct military history of each up to the time 



The Les^islaiure. 



19 



of. its muster-out, will be found in the report. It also gives infor- 
mation relating to the organization of certain volunteer militia 
companies in different parts of the State, designed for the protec- 
tion of peaceable and industrious citizens from the depredations 
of the lawless, and to aid and protect the civil authorities in the 
enforcement of the laws. This report should be printed, as 
thousands of citizens are interested in the facts therein contained ; 
and those entitled to back-pay and pensions are especially inter- 
ested in its publication as the evidence on which their claims rest 
is to be found therein." 

To this report the legislature paid no attention ex- 
cept to shelve it, but to the writer the case was differ- 
ent. In the Senate, on the first day of the session, 
and directly after the opening prayer, a bill was intro- 
duced to repeal the law that gave him the pay of his 
grade, and to reduce his compensation to $200 a 
year. A few days later a similar bill was introduced 
in the House of Representatives, but in neither body 
did this bill finally pass. It soon became evident, 
however, that the publication of the report referred 
to would not be ordered — a report written without 
acrimony or malice — and with the approval of the 
governor, the writer repaired to Washington with a 
copy of the manuscript. On the 15th day of Febru- 
ary, 1867, the Senate of the United States by a unani- 
mous vote ordered the publication of this report, and 
at the expense of the general government it was duly 
gotten out at the public printing-office in Washington. 
One thousand copies were issued and distributed for 
the use of the Union soldiery of Arkansas. 

When this legislature adjourned there was very 
little left of the State government as organized under 
the auspices of President Lincoln, and it soon became 
apparent that Arkansas would be included with the 



-20 JF/iar IS the Situation Now? 

other rebellious States in the reconstruction acts. of 
Congress. This was done and the woes of the people, 
as rehearsed by Mr. Fishback, now began. But before 
we proceed to this lamentable state of affairs let it not 
be forgotten that the "two and one-half years" of 
State government, *' from April i8th, 1864, to October 
ist, 1866," which Mr. Fishback states were under 
Democratic rule, and from which he makes compari- 
sons favorable to Democratic management, were, as 
we have already said, not Democratic at all. The 
assurance is sublime that so presents them. T his govern - 
ment was precisely what we have stated it to be. Mr. 
Fishback's " two years and a \\dM'' had expired ^^htw 
the members of the legislature, elected in August, 
1866, came together in November, and now for the 
first ti/ne after the close of the war was a?iy branch of 
the State government under Democratic control. That 
control embraced the legislative and judicial depart- 
ments, but not the executive ; and this legislature, aside 
from the notoriety, by the way, that it otherwise 
acquired, exhausted the treasury. 

The reconstruction period in Arkansas began in the 
year 1868 and ended in 1874. The course of certain 
officials of the State government in operation during 
this period, in manipulating State aid to railroads, and 
the Holford and Levee bonds — a subject upon which 
Mr. Fishback dilates — was indefensible, but still 
there were two sides to the matter ; one, involving 
individual Republicans, the other individual Democrats, 
as we shall shortly endeavor to show. 

Meantime we invite attention to a comparison that 
Mr. Fishback could have presented in his article in 
" Why the solid South ? " but did not. 



Republican Rtile iSyj. 21 

In the year 1874 a new State constitution was 
adopted, and x\o\n for the first time after the close of the 
war the Democracy of Arkansas controlled ^//branches 
of the State government — the executive as well as 
the legislative and judicial. The year 1873 was the 
last full year of Republican rule ; the year 1875 the 
first full year of Democratic rule, and careful atten- 
tion is asked to the following tables which show cur- 
rent expenses alone. 

REPUBLICAN RULE 1873. 

Salary of Governor, $5, 000 

" Secretary of State, 3,000 

" Treasurer of State, 3, 000 

" Auditor, 3, 000 

" Attorney General, 3, 500 

" Commissioner of State Lands, 3, 000 

" Superintendent of Public Instruction, . . 3, 500 

For clerks in Auditor's office, 8,000 

" " and contingent expenses in Treasury Dep't, . 8,000 

" " in State Land Office, 5,000 

For rent of Governor's mansion, 1,200 

" Copying Acts of General Assembly, i.oco 

" Clerk's hire in Office of Commissioner of Public 

Works, 2,500 

" Clerk's hire in office of Superintendent of Public 

Instruction, 2,000 

" State printing, not to exceed, 60,000 

" Contingent expenses. Executive Department, . . . 10,000 

" Contingent expenses, Supreme Court, 3,000 

" Contingent expenses of Pulaski Chancery Court, . 2,000 

" Clerk and reporter. Supreme Court, i,5CO 

" Paying General Assembly, per diem 150,000 

" Contingent expenses of same, 10,000 

Salary of Lieutenant Governor, 3, 500 

State Geologist, 2,500 

Total, $294,200 



2 2 What is the Situation Now 2 

DEMOCRATIC RULE 1875. 

Salary of Governor, $3.5oo 

" Secretary of State, 2,000 

" Treasurer of State, 2,500 

" Auditor, 2,500 

" Attorney General, 2,000 

" Commissioner of State Lands, 2,000 

The Acts do not show salary of Supt. of Public Instruction. 

For clerks in Auditor's office, 8,000 

clerks and contingent expenses in Treasury Dep't, . 8,000 

Contingent expenses. State offices, 7, 500 

Clerks in State Land office, 8,500 

Rent of Governor's mansion, 1.200 

Copying Acts of General Assembly, 3, 000 

Printing and distributing Treasurer's certificates, 3,000 

Printing blank collector's and assessor's books, , . 15,000 

Distributing emigration documents 500 

State printing, 50,000 

Supplying deficit for State printing, 20,000 

Contingent expenses, Executive Department (p. 240) 43,000 

Contingent expenses. Executive Department (p. 77) 50,000 

Engineers Public Works 1,275 

Contingent expenses. Supreme Court, 3,000 

Contingent expenses, Pulaski Chancery Court, . . 5,000 

Clerk and reporter. Supreme Court, 1,600 

Paying General Assembly, per diem (p. 337), . . 50,000 

Paying General Assembly, per diem (p. 220), . . 40,000 

Paying General Assembly, per diem (p. 77), . . . 100,000 

Total, $433,075 

Difference in favor of Republican economy, . . . $138,875 
The Appropriations as above, for paying the per diem of 
the members of the General Assembly of 1S75, see 
pages 77, 220 and 337, Acts of 1875, were . . .$190,000 
To this sum should be added $40,000, U. S. gold inter- 
est bearing bonds — borrowed to pay the per diem 
of the members of this General Assembly, . . . 40,000 

Making a total of $230,000 



Party Rule Contrasted. 23 

Against the $160,000 expended in 1873 by the Repub- 
lican Legislature for the same purpose, . , . $i6o,oo"> 

Difference in favor of Republican economy $70,000 

Salary of Democratic Governor, 1875, $3,500 

Contingent expenses (see p. 240, Acts 1875), ... 43,000 

Contingent expenses (see p. 77, Acts 1875), .... 50,000 

. Total, Democratic administration, $96,500 

Salary of Republican Governor, 1873, $5,000 

Contingent expenses, 10,000 

Total $15,000 

Difference in favor of Republican rule, $81,500 

By reference to the acts of 1873 it will be seen that 
the collectors received three per centum for collecting 
the revenues, and in i^-]^, five per centum, an advance 
of two per cent. 

These facts and figures are taken from the printed 
acts of the general assemblies of 1873 ^^^d 1875. 

This was Democratic economy with a vengeance. 

On pages 311 and 312 of ''Why the Solid South?" 
Mr. Fishback says : 

" Under an act of the legislature, approved February 24th, 
1838, the State loaned a private bank in Little Rock, called the 
" Real Estate Bank," five hundred thousand dollars in its bonds, 
to be sold but at not less than par, the proceeds to be used in 
starting a branch of their bank in Van Buren, in the western part 
of the State. 

" The bank officers undertook to sell them to the North Amer- 
ican Trust & Banking Company of New York. The company 
said that they had already floated as many Arkansas bonds as 
could be floated at par, and refused either to buy or to attempt to 
sell. The officers of the bank then hypothecated the bonds with 
this same company and drew out upon their security $121,333, 
and not for the purposes of the act, but for their 02un private 
purposes. 



24 What is the Situation Noiv? 

"The North American Company failed shortly afterwards, 
owing one James Holford a large amount. He found among 
their assets these five hundred $i,ooo bonds and demanded pay- 
ment by the State. The governor informed him that the bonds 
showed upon their face that they were in the possession of the 
Trust Company by fraud, and that they belonged not to Holford 
but to the State. 

" Holford held on to the bonds, and in April, 1869, he saw his 
opportunity with the carpet-bag legislature. 

" His agent asked them for the $121,000 drawn out by the 
bank officers together with interest. But the legislature, through 
lobbyists, said no, we will not pay you this amount of about 
$330,000, but if you will put in your claim for the $500,000, with 
forty years interest, making in all $1,370,000, we will give you 
your $330,000, and we will take the balance, as a reward for our 
honesty * in restoring the honor and credit of the State.' This 
amount was issued and so divided." 

These bonds came into use in pursuance of an act 
of the general assembly entitled, " an act to provide 
for the funding of the public debt of the State," 
approved April 6, 1869 ; a measure that was commonly 
known as the " Holford bond," or " funding bill." 

The House of Representatives of the State legislature 
in session in the year 1877 — an overwhelmingly Dem- 
ocratic body — appointed a special committee to 
enquire into the alleged frauds connected with the 
legislation upon and issue, of these Holford bonds and 
the Railroad Aid and Levee bonds. Of this com- 
mittee Mr. Fishback was chairman. A sub committee, 
of which he was likewise chairman, took testimony at 
Fort Smith, January 26, 1877. William Walker, a 
prominent Democratic lawyer (now deceased), after 
referring to a petition drawn by himself, as attorney 
for the administrators of the estate of Charles B. 
Johnson, deceased, upon which petition was based 



Leo-islative Investizcitton. 



an order of court for the sale of fifty State bonds, 
issued under tliis act of April 6, 1869, testified as fol- 
lows before this committee. He was interrogated by 
Mr. Fishback : 

Question: " State whether or not you ever heard 
Mr. Charles B. Johnson, in his life-time, say anything 
in relation to the funding act of the 6th of April, 1869, 
mentioned in the order to which you have just re- 
ferred, or to the so-called Holford bonds, or to any 
interest he had in the same, and if yea, state what 
it was." 

Answer: "Not long after the passage of the fund- 
ing act inquired after, I happened to call at the 
counting-room of Messrs. Collins & Lanigan in this 
place. Mr. Johnson and a number of other gentle- 
men, among whom are Mr. Lanigan, William B. Sut- 
ton, and, I think. Major Rector and Mr. James M. 
Collins, were there. Mr. Johnson and others of the 
company were discussing the funding bill and the 
merits of the Holford claims against the State. I 
joined in the discussion, which waxed warm, Mr. 
Johnson evincing considerable feeling. On leaving 
the counting-room I was followed by Mr. Johnson, 
who overtook me at the front door of the house, and 
taking me to one side, stated that he was largely inter- 
ested in the Holford bonds ^ and expressed the hope 
that I would not indulge in such tirades as I had been 
making, in the future, saying that the only effect such 
arguments and invectives as I had just been using 
could have, would be to depreciate the bonds to be 
issued under the funding act, and injure my friends. 

*' In the course of an hour or so I called again at the 
counting-room, and found Mr. Johnson still engaged 



26 J J Via t is the Situation Now? 

in conversation respecting the funding act, in the 
course of which I remarked to him that if any of the 
bonds issued in satisfaction of the Holford bonds 
ever came into his hands he should convert them into 
money as soon as possible, saying that the very first 
act of the first Democratic legislature that convened 
would be to repudiate them. To which he replied 
that the influence of the holders of the bonds in this 
State would prevent that, a?id intiiJiated very clearly 
and distinctly that prominent Democrats were as deeply 
interested in the Holford bonds as the Radicals. I can- 
not at this remote period undertake to state all that 
was said at the time referred to, but I have a distinct 
recollection that when I or some other person present 
expressed asto?iishment at the sudden cessation of the 
onslaughts of the ''Gazette " upon the measure during its 
pendency in the legislature, Mr. Johnson, turning 
to someone who had remarked that the ''Gazette'' had 
good reason for its course, said: 'I spiked that 

GUN.'" 

The Gazette, published at Little Rock, was then, and 
is now, the leading Democratic newspaper in Arkan- 
s:is. Charles B. Johnson had been a Confederate, and 
after the war was a Democrat, and Mr. Fishback now 
abruptly changes the examination of the witness. 
Walker, to another class of bonds. 

" What amount of Little Rock & Fort Smith Rail- 
road bonds did Mr. Johnson own ? " 

Answer: " I saw a statement in writing over the 
signature of William P. Denckla, sent by him to the 
administratrix, since Mr. Johnson's death, that the 
bonds coming to her estate were $370,000. This is 
my recollection. I have since understood that the 



Legislative Investigation. 27 

real amount was over $400,000. I am uncertain 
as to the amounts, but this is my recollection about 
it.*^' 

To James M. Collins, another witness sworn at this 
time, Mr. Fishback caused to be read the testimony 
of William Walker as here presented, down to and 
including the spiking of the Gazette s gun, and he 
asks this witness : " Is that your recollection of the 
conversation ? " 

Answer: " It is. I recollect it distinctly." 

Mr. Walker was now re-called and is asked this 
question : 

" In your testimony, written out by yourself, you 
allude to Mr. Johnson's having 'spiked the Gazette' 
This, unexplained, may do an injustice. Did I not 
understand you, when you first mentioned this subject 
to me several years ago, when fresh in your mind, to 
say that Mr. Johnson exonerated Mr. Woodruff " (Mr. 
Woodruff was one of the proprietors of the Gazette) 
' from any participation in these frauds ? ' " 

Answer: "My recollection is, that he left the im- 
pression on my mind that Mr. Woodruff was not impli- 
cated. I do not remember now who was editing the 
Gazette, or to whom he alluded, but do not think it 
was Mr. Woodruff. I think he had reference to some 
one else connected with the paper." 

At a meeting of the full committee, held at Little 
Rock, February 2, 1877, Mr. Woodruff (\Vm. E. 
Woodruff, Jr.) was sworn and asked this question 
only : 

" Do you know of any frauds committed in connec- 
tion with the funding of any State bonds ? " 

Answer: ''I do not; nothing." 



28 W/iaf is the Situation Now ? 

February 5, 1877, the full committee met again at 
Little Rock, when Maj. W. D. Blocher, having been 
called and sworn, testified as follows : 

''I was connected with the Gazette in 1869, at the 
time the Funding Act of April 6th, 1S69, \yas pending. 
I have no knowledge of any money, or bonds, being 
paid or offered to any body connected with the paper 
to secure its influence or for any other illegitimate 
purpose." 

The testimony disclosed nothing further that bore 
upon the attitude of the Gazette ; and while Mr. 
Woodruff and Maj. Blocher were considered as exoner- 
ating themselves personally, they were not the only 
parties understood to be connected at that time with 
the management of the Gazette, and there still stood 
its abrupt and significant silence at a critical juncture 
in this matter ; the statement of Mr. Walker that Mr. 
Johnson had reference to some one connected with 
the Gazette^ other than Mr. Woodruff as he (Walker) 
thought, and the direct and positive statement of Mr. 
Johnson with reference to this sudden silence of the 
Gazette (which seems to have been conceded) that 
'' he had spiked that gun " — testimony confirmed also 
by the witness Collins. 

The paternity of this funding bill, or who were 
seeking to have it drawn, the committee found it very 
difficult to ascertain. Republican witnesses swore 
they knew nothing about its authorship, and Demo- 
cratic witnesses who were charged to have drawn it, 
gave similar testimony. The nearest approach to 
finding out, specifically, what man or men were inter- 
ested in having it drawn — a bill whose authorship 



Legislative Investigation. 29 

seems still to be a mystery — is found in the testimony 
of Dr. R. G. Jennings. 

Question by Mr. Stubbs. 

" Who drew the bill ? " 

Ansiver : " I do not know. Gov. Garland told me 
that he had been approached on the subject, but had 
refused. Garland said // was Charles B. yohnson^ as 
I understood. In my frequent conversations with 
Garland, he said he knew that these men had to have 
the services of some lawyer here, who knew all about 
the laws pertaining to the matter." 

As nearly, therefore, as location appears to be possi- 
ble, the authorship of this bill was quite as likely 
Democratic as Republican. 

Again, speaking of testimon}^ taken by this com- 
mittee, Mr. Fishback says, on page 313: 

" A Republican State Senator who was deep in the 
inside of matters, after warding off question after 
question by the chairman, finally admitted that his 
opinion was, that the lobbyists, naming them, got 
$870,000, as their share." 

We have before us the majority and minority reports 
of this committee and the testimony taken, as printed 
in pamphlet form at the office of the Gazette at Little 
Rock, and there cannot be found from the beginning 
of this document to its end a single word in support 
of the statement last above quoted. 

If any Republican State Senator, who appeared 
before that committee, warded off question after ques- 
tion the fact does not appear, and there is no admis- 
sion by any such witness that lobbyists received 
$870,000, or any other sum, as their share of the Hoi- 



30 ]V/iat is the Situation Now ? 

ford Bonds, nor is there any " naming " whatever of 
such lobbyists. 

The majority report of this committee was signed 
by Mr. Fishback as chairman, and presumably he 
wrote it. On page 312 of "Why the solid South?" 
this report is supposed to appear, but is, in fact, so 
badly garbled, and for the evident purpose of avoid- 
ing any allusion to Democratic corruption, that the 
original report and this mutilated affair will both be 
now presented. The latter, which is intended for con- 
sumption by " the business men of the North,"" ran as 
follows : 

"Mr. Speaker, — 

" Your committee . . . have had in evidence before them 
that there was formed and organized in this city" (Little Rock) 
" a combination of men called a 'ring,' who had a regular cypher 
by which they concealed their true names in their correspond- 
ence. 

" That this ' ring' borrowed money from persons outside the 
State for the purpose of bribing the funding act of April 6tb, 
i86g. through the legislature ; of getting a distribution of the 
railroad aid bonds . . . and that seventy- five thousand dollars 
were subscribed by men interested in the levee contracts, with 
which to purchase the legislation, which made levee bonds re- 
ceivable for the lands of the State. 

" (Signed by nine of committee, one Republican dissenting)." 

The///// majority report, as printed by the Gazette, 
was the following : 

" Mr. Speaker, — 

"Your committee upon whom the House of Representatives 
devolved the very unpleasant duty of investigating the ' frauds 
connected with the legislation upon and the issue of the Holford 
railroad aid and levee bonds of this State,' have directed me to 
report that they have discharged that duty with such diligence 
and thoroughness as their limited time and opportunities have 



Majority Report. 31 

admitted. Your committee, however, feel it due not less to 
themselves than to the House, to express their regret that the fast 
approaching termination of the session of the general assembly, 
and the imperative necessity for a final adjustment of our finances, 
have compelled them to conduct their investigation with rather 
more haste than they could otherwise have wished. 

" And yet they are not without hope that their labors have been 
sufficiently productive to convince the House and the country, 
even as your committee are convinced, of the utterly fraudulent 
character of both the legislation upon and issue of the bonds, 
which have constituted the subject of their inquiries. 

" They have had in evidence before them that there was formed 
and organized in this city a combination of men, commonly called 
a ' ring,' who had a regular cypher by which they concealed their 
true names in their correspondence ; that this * ring ' borrowed 
money from persons outside of the State for the purpose of brib- 
ing the funding act of April 6, 1869, through the legislature, and 
of getting a fraudulent distribution of the railroad aid bonds ; that^ 
in addition to paying money and bonds for the necessary legis- 
lation, the bonds themselves were distributed among De?noc?'aiic 
and Republican politicians in such a manner as would fortify the 
iniquity against a repudiation by the people ; that in order to 
silence all objection against their frauds while in progress of con- 
summation, corruption money was otherwise used ; that the rail- 
road aid bonds were issued in such palpable violation of law, and 
at a time when at such a heavy discount as necessarily to presup- 
pose a deliberate fraud ; and that seventy-five thousand dollars 
were subscribed by men interested in levee contracts, with which 
to purchase the legislation which made levee bonds receivable for 
swamp lands. 

"Yet in the midst of this carnival of fraud your committee 
find exceeding gratification in reporting that several gentlemen, 
whose names had been more or less mixed up with these iniquities 
by common rumor, have, in the opinion of your committee, com- 
pletely exonerated themselves from all complicity in so disrepu- 
table transactions. 

" But as the resolutions, under which your committee are act- 
ing, charge them with a mere investigation of facts they deem it 
improper to present any conclusions of their own ; and for the 



3- IV/iat is the Situation Now? 

same reason they forbear any recommendations in the premises, 
but beg merely and respectfully to submit, for your consideration, 
the testimony they have taken. 

"Very respectfully, 

W. M. FiSHBACK, Chairman, 
T. J. Stubbs, C. W. Walker, 

A. S. McKennon, J. P. Eagle, 
A. Davis, e. P. Watson, 

Lewis W. Davis, I. R. Barnett." 

It can now be readily perceived that this report, as 
it appears in 'MVhy the solid South?" is utterly at 
variance with fairness of presentation ; and the writer, 
who is personally acquainted with Mr. Fishback,' 
is greatly surprised that he should so distort his 
own work. 

The minority report was very short. 

" Mr. Speaker, — 

" I do not wish to be considered factious, but I cannot agree to 
the 'summing up' of the evidence as reported by a majority of 
your committee. Without nozv criticising the majority report, I 
submit the evidence as taken, without comment, as my report, ask- 
ing each reader to draw his own conclusions. 

"T. M. JACKS." 

As shown, even by the tnajority report, there were 

some Democratic politicians who were as deep in the 

mud of these transactions as certain Republicans 

were in the mire. The pot should not call the kettle 

\t)lack. 

While, therefore, the writer does not, for one, ap- 
prove of or attempt to excuse all the public conduct 
of certain officers of the reconstruction government in 
Arkansas, still let us see whether or not there was 
anything good in Israel. 



Mason W. Benjatnin. 33 

In the month of August, 1880, Mason W. Benja- 
min,* a prominent lawyer of Little Rock, made a 
speech in that city, from which we extract the fol- 
lowing : 

" I think it can be truthfully said that under all administrations, 
both Democratic and Republican, that with few exceptions, both 
the civil and criminal laws have been faithfully executed — much 
more so than in any other Southern State ; but notwithstanding 
the laws have been generally executed, still Gov. Roan before 
the war had to call out the militia to suppress some trouble in 
Marion County ; and Gov. Clayton, in 1868, had to call out the 
militia to suppress the Ku-Klux, which he succeeded in doing. 

" By his prompt action in calling out the militia we escaped 
the many Ku-Klux outrages that were perpetrated in most of the 
Southern States. On account of this Klan being broken up so 
soon in this State, we stand hs> THE only Southern State that 
has conducted herself so as not to have been investigated by con- 
gressional committees on account of outrages committed by the 
Ku-Klux. 

" These reports in the other Southern States form a chapter in 
their history blacker than any known in the civilized world. 
The prompt suppression of the Ku-Klux in this State saved the 



* The day before the congressional election of 1SS8 in Arkan- 
sas, John M. Clayton being the Republican candidate and Clifton 
R. Breckenridge the Democratic, Mr. Benjamin was sent to 
Conway County by the Republican State Central Committee with 
instructions to " use his best endeavors to secure an honest elec- 
tion." On arriving at the depot at Morrillton he was " confront- 
ed by an infuriated mob of several hundred persons," as we are 
told, "who threw him from the cars, assaulted and beat him, 
pulled from his face handfuls of beard, and met all of his appeals 
to their humanity with kicks and cuffs, and by shooting him in 
the forehead with a weapon of sufficient force to imbed and flat- 
ten a bullet on his skull. A short time after this Mr. Benjamin 
died, telling his wife, before his death, that his sufferings were 
due to the treatment received at the hands of the Morrillton mob." 



34 



What is the Situation Now 2 



State that disgrace ; and every man of every party who feels a 
pride for the good name of the State ought to rejoice over the 
act." 

Before we proceed further with Mr. Benjamin, let 
us here interrupt him. The Ku-Klux Klan was not 
a bugaboo or a myth ; nor was it the comparatively 
harmless band of night riders that " the business men of 
the North " are asked to consider it in the description 
of the organization as given in "Why the solid South?" 

We quote from the chapter on " Reconstruction in 
Tennessee" (page 210): 

" The Ku-Klux Klan was a mysterious organization that wore 
grotesque disguises ; that paraded at night and that seemed to 
have neither starting point nor destination. It appeared unex- 
pectedly and disappeared suddenly. It never entered in its para- 
phernalia the larger cities or centers of population. Its move- 
ments were entirely on horseback, the horses often with muffled 
feet and with trapping sufficient to conceal their identity on a 
casual view. Their numbers were indefinite. Sometimes many 
would appear together ; at others, few. No one was found to 
confess that he knew who they were, whence they came or 
whither they went. 

"Sixteen years after this, in 1884, a history of the Ku-Klux 
Klan was published in Nashville, in which the fact is disclosed 
that it originated with a coterie of young men in Pulaski, Giles 
County, this State, in May, 1866, and was designed by them 
wholly and purely for amusement ; that the amusing features of 
the initiation were so decided, the membership increased so rap- 
idly, that by 1868, it had spread from Virginia to Texas, and its 
original design had been greatly perverted ; that its chief officer 
had lost control of its members or their actions ; that it was never 
in any sense a military organization, as alleged by Gov. Brown- 
low; that it claimed that many of the crimes and outrages commit- 
ted in its name were those of parties who used their disguises to 
gratify personal spites, and so avenge private griefs; and that it 
disbanded in March, 1869." 



Ku-Klux Klan. 35 

And thus in softened phrase is this bitterly pre- 
scriptive political organization brought again to the 
attention of the American people. It did indeed 
spread from Virginia to Texas. 

Although Gov. Brovvnlow may have so regarded it, 
it was not generally understood in the South to be a 
military organization. Nor was it at all necessary 
that it should be, in order to accomplish its malignant 
purposes. Those purposes were the intimidation of 
Southern Republicans, white as well as black ; the 
" amusing features of the initiation " were a call to ter- 
rorism and murder, and the actual facts can not be 
glossed over by this apologetic, milk and water state- 
ment. 

The "crimes and outrages" committed by this 
Klan were political ; and they form a chapter in 
the history of the country that will pillory forever 
the prejudice and the hate of those men who 
still publicly justify the "Lost Cause"; and while 
they may not themselves have been the " Mid- 
night riders in grotesque disguise," they were the 
power behind and could easily have called off their 
murderous followers, had they thought proper to 
do so. 

In Arkansas we fortunately had a governor in 
Powell Clayton firm enough and stern enough to 
crush out, with his militia, these political assassins. 
Nor were his militiamen exclusively " Negro Militia," 
as Mr. Fishback terms them. Whole companies were 
composed of white men, many of whom were tax- 
payers, and when the State became tranquil again 
this militia was disbanded. 

We return to Mr. Benjamin. 



36 What is the Situation Now ? 

In the year 1874 a new Constitution was adopted 
in the State of Arkansas, and in speaking of the first 
Legislature that assembled under it — a body over- 
whelmingly Democratic — Mr. Benjamin said : 

" This Legislature wanted to change the time of the 
city election in Little Rock, so as to oust the Repub- 
lican incumbent, and was afraid to do so by a bill for 
that purpose. So they re-enacted the chapter in 
Gantt's Digest upon incorporation of cities, with a 
change of the time for an election, and a few other 
trivial changes to make a show. They passed a 
peonage law and called it a regulation of the labor 
system and destroyed the priority of a laborer s lien that 
a Republica7i law had given to all laborers o?i the produc- 
tion of their labor ^ (Cries of " That's so; give it to 
them ! ") 

" They passed an act to steal and divide among them- 
selves and other State officers forty thousand dollars 
of the School fund, that the Republicans had saved 
and invested in United States Government bonds, and 
through every emergency had refused to touch. 

"The legislature of 1877 " (likewise overwhelmingly 
Democratic) " passed an act to double the price of State 
lands ; repealed the donation law, which permitted 
every citizen to donate lands that had been forfeited 
for taxes, and passed an act to sell men in jail to the 
highest bidder. Under this act one negro was sold 
in this county ; then the negroes made up a purse to 
buy the first white man that was sold. This made 
that law in this county a dead letter. No other man 
was ever offered for sale. 

"The legislature of 1879" (similarly strong as a 
Democratic body) " passed an act to sell land for 



Democratic Jobbery. 37 

taxes, without advertising. It passed Johnson and 
Reynold's steal bill, which was the greatest fraud, the 
greatest swindle, the greatest robbery of the people, 
for the benefit of two individuals, that has ever been 
perpetrated by any legislature in the State of Arkan- 
sas. Lycurgus L. Johnson and Gen. D. H. Rey- 
nolds * made a contract to build a levee, and were to 
receive 90 and 80 cents per cubic yard, and $150 per 
acre for draining, and were to take their pay in levee 
bonds. They did the work at these enormous figures, 
and received a part of their pay m levee bonds, and 
when all the levee bonds were issued that could be 
issued under the act, there was still due Johnson & Rey- 
nolds in levee bonds the sum of $87,5 11.20. Johnson 
& Reynolds owed the State upon real estate bank 
mortgages the sum of $94,590.98. These figures I get 
from the records of the chancery court. So taking 
each debt at its face value Johnson & Reynolds owed 
the State a balance of $7,079.78. The real estate 
bank debt could be paid in real estate bank bonds, 
that were worth about three times as much as levee 
bonds. Now our honest Bourbon legislature passed a 
bill to settle the matter, and to cover up their rascality 
as much as they could, recited various lies in a '' where- 
as " and a " whereas," and thus enacted that they 
would not only give Johnson & Reynolds the $7,079- 
.78 balance that they owed the State, but required the 
auditor to issue to Johnson & Reynolds treasurer's 
certificates to the amount of $32,309.07, making a gift 
o^ $39,388.80 to Johnson & Reynolds. This is taking 
each debt at its face value, but if we estimate the cash 

*Gen. D. H. Reynolds was a prominent Confederate officer in 
the war of the rebellion and a Democrat afterwards. 



38 JV/iai is the Situation Now ? 

value of each the fraud is still greater. The cash 
value of $87,511.98 in levee bonds was^$8,75i.i9, and 
the cash value of $94,590.98 in real estate bank bonds 
was $28,377.29, which makes a difference in favor of 
the State of $19,626.10. This added to $32,309.07 
makes the neat little sum of $51,935.17 that the legis- 
lature stole from the people and gave to Johnson & 
Reynolds. 

IMPROVEMENTS. 

*' Let us examine the record of the two parties in re- 
gard to improvements. In twenty-five years under 
Democratic rule there was built in this State a rickety 
old squeaking railroad from Little Rock to DeValls 
Bluff, a distance of about fifty miles. This was the 
only railroad in the State when the Republicans came 
into power. During the five years that the Repub- 
licans ruled, there were built in this State between 
six and seven hundred miles of railroad ; so that 
when the Republicans went out of power you could 
travel from the capital to almost any part of the State 
by railroad. 

" During the six or seven years the Democrats have 
been in power, as the successors of the Republicans, 
there have been built in the State about one hundred 
miles of railroad. So there have been built under 
the thirty odd years of Democratic rule about one 
hundred and fifty miles of railroad to about six hun- 
dred and fifty miles during a Republican rule of a 
little over five years. 

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. 

"During all the long period the Democracy were in 
power in this State, both before and since the war. 



Republican Improve??ients. 39 

they never built and maintained a single charitable 
institution of any description. During the time the 
Republicans were in power they made great efforts to 
protect and take care of the unfortunate. They es- 
tablished, built and maintained a beautiful asylum for 
the blind of the State, a place where the unfortunate 
sightless boys and girls of the State can be educated, 
and learn some trade that enables them to make 
a living. They also established, built and main- 
tained a beautiful asylum for the deaf and dumb, 
a place where the unfortunate mutes of the State 
can obtain an education. They also passed a law 
establishing an asylum for the lunatics, and an ap- 
propriation to carry it into effect ; but before any- 
thing could be done under it, the Democracy 
came into power and they have spent ten thou- 
sand dollars of the appropriation, but have built no 
asylum. 

SCHOOLS. 

'' Let us briefly examine the records of the two 
parties upon the subject of common schools: upon 
the subject of providing means for educating the 
children of the rich and poor alike. 

" Congress granted to this State 960,000 acres of 
land for the purpose of establishing common schools. 
Did the Democracy either establish schools or create 
a school fund from which we now draw large interest, 
as is the case in most of the Western States, from this 
magnificent gift ? Let us put their own witness 
upon the stand, so they cannot charge it to be a Radical 
lie, and see what progress they made for the first 
twenty years. 



40 ] 111 at is tJic Situation Noiv ? 

" Hon. David B. Greer, Secretary of State and School 
Commissioner, in his report in 1856, says, " They have 
about twenty- Jive common schools organized and 
sustained by the common school fund." This gives 
them one and a quarter schools for each year of their 
rule up to that time. What great progress they made ! 
What wonderful facilities they furnished for educating 
the children of the State! Does it not seem to you 
that any political party that makes such exceedingly 
liberal provision for educating the children of the 
State ought to be kept in power forever ? . 

" But, fellow citizens, I am sorry to inform you that 
the Bourbon Democracy were unable to hold out at 
such an exceedingly liberal rate, for in four years, in 
i860, Hon. S. M. Weaver, then Secretary of Stat-e and 
School Commissioner, reported that there were only 
ten schools in the State. This was the last report 
before the war. 

"■ What did the Democracy do with the 960,000 acres 
of land given by Congress for the sole use of schools, 
and worth, at least, three million dollars. Let us ex- 
amine their own witness again and see what proof can 
be found. Secretary Greer in his report says : 

* We see the cotton fields flourish upon them, but not even a 
log school-house is reared for the education of the poor ybuth of 
the township.' 

'* Yes, nearly the whole of these lands and the funds 
arising from the sale of the lands have been diverted 
from the school fund and completely squandered. 

" What did the Republicans do when they came into 
power ? How many schools did they add to the ten 
Democratic schools ? 



Republican School Manage?Hent. 41 

" The first year they passed a good, efficient school 
law and added to the ten school houses built by the 
Democracy, 622, making at the end of their first year 632 
schools. The second year they organized 240 schools 
and the third year, 417 ; the fourth year, 302 and the 
fifth year, 187,-1,768 schools in five years, against the 
Democracy's twenty-five in twenty-four years. 

'' In 1869, the second year of Republican rule, there 
were out of the 176,910 school children in the State, 
67,412 attending the public schools; and in 1870, 
the third year of Republican rule, out of 180,274 
school children, there were 107,908 children attending 
the public schools provided by the Republicans. 

"In 1874 the constitutional convention which con- 
tained a large Democratic majority "— and now the re- 
construction period was over with —"abolished in their 
new constitution the office of State school superintend- 
ent, so as to get as near back to old times as possi- 
ble, and under their rule the schools soon ran down. 
The very first legislature that convened robbed the 
School fund of $40,000 in United States government 
bonds, that the Republicans had saved during their 
administration, and divided it among themselves and 
other State officials. This was their first aid to 
schools. By the time the next legislature met, the 
people began to be clamorous to have the schools the 
Republicans had established put into operation, and 
to appease this clamor the legislature of 1875 created 
the office of school superintendent, and also pretend- 
ed to enact a school law, but it was just a. reenact- 
ment of the Republican school law in Gantt's Digest, 
except that it provided that all funds, etc., that under 
the Republican law went to the school fund, might be 



42 What is the Situation Noiv 1 

invested in Arkansas bonds, instead of United States 
government bonds ; and that the interest on the 
school fund might be appropriated to the payment of 
salaries, instead of requiring it only to be applied to 
teachers' wages ; and that county examiners or super- 
intendents should be appointed by the county court 
instead of being elected by the school trustees of the 
various school districts of the county ; and that if any 
school district voted to have no school, and so noti- 
fied the school superintendent, that they should not 
lose their proportion of the school fund. 

" Some changes were also made as to the time reports 
were to be presented. All these changes, except the 
time to make reports, made the school law more ineffi- 
cient and the school fund more insecure. We find 
from the reports made by their superintendents that 
in 1876 they built 25 school houses, and that there 
were 189,130 school children in the State, and out of 
this large number only iS,S(po attended school. We find, 
also, that in 1877 there were 80 school houses built 
and that there were 216,475 school children in the 
State, and out of this number only 33,747 attended 
school. 

UNIVERSITIES. 

" The Congress of the United States gave the State 
of Arkansas 46,000 acres of the very best land in the 
State, while the Democracy were in power, for the 
purpose of building and sustaining a university of 
learning.. Where is the university they built with this 
magnificent fund ? Nowhere. None was ever built. 
What has become of this fund ? Squandered long 
since. 



Arkansas Industrial University. 43 

" During the Republican administration of the State, 
a grant made by a Republican Congress of 150,000 
acres of land for the purpose of building a university 
of learning came to their hands. Did they do like the 
Democracy — squander it ? No, they built at Fayette- 
ville one of the most magnificent university buildings 
in the United States ! They not only managed to build 
this fine university, but had the same endowed with 
almost one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and put 
in successful operation. This university is now the 
great pride of everyone, irrespective of party, in the 
State. It will be a monument to the Republican ad- 
ministration '• as long as grass grows and water runs.' 
(Applause, and cries of ' preach the word.')" 



Thus far Mr. Benjamin. He was a careful, pains- 
taking lawyer, and not given to making erroneous 
statements. Of the university to which he alludes, 
the Arkansas Industrial, the writer was the first presi- 
dent, a trustee and treasurer of the board ; and it is 
not improper, perhaps, for him to say, that from the 
beginning this institution was prosperous and is pros- 
pering to-day. 

It was created and put in successful operation 
under Acts of the Legislature of the State, passed in 
the years 1871 and 1873, during the reconstruction 
period ; laws that were intended to secure and build 
up for Arkansas a great university, which, while not 
neglecting the usual curriculum of American colleges, 
should specially provide for instruction in agriculture 
and the mechanic arts. 

On the second day of July, 1862, President Lincoln 
approved the Act of Congress donating public lands 



44 IVhai is tJie Situation Noiv ? 

to the several States and Territories which should so 
provide, and under this law the Reconstruction Gov- 
ernment of Arkansas proceeded. Several localities 
competed for this university, but it was finally located 
at Fayetteville, Washington County, the county deliv- 
ering to it $100,000, in its bonds, payable thirty years 
from date, with interest at eight per cent., payable 
semi-annually ; and the town of Fayetteville, $30,000 
of its bonds, likewise running for thirty years, with 
interest similarly payable, and at the same rate per 
cent. 

The next thing to do was to obtain the 150,000 
acres of Agricultural College Scrip allotted to the 
State. Temporary buildings were erected at Fayette- 
ville ; the university was thrown open to pupils, and 
when the required number was obtained to secure 
this scrip, the fact was telegraphed to the Secretary of 
the Interior. The right of the university to the Con- 
gressional donation seemed now to be complete, and 
the writer was sent to Washington by the Board of 
Trustees to secure its issuance, but arriving there he 
was told by the Secretary of the Interior that the uni- 
versity could not have this scrip until the State of Ar- 
kansas should pay an indebtedness due from it to the 
trust fund of the Chickasaw Indians, a debt contracted 
when the Democracy was ruling the State, and amount- 
ing then, principal and interest, to at least $250,000, 
and as security for the payment of which the govern- 
ment held the bonds of the old State Bank. 

Shortly after Arkansas was admitted into the union 
it borrowed from this Chickasaw Indian fund a large 
sum of money. On the first day of January, 1842, the 
amount of unpaid principal was $90,000. Up to that 



Proceedings in Congress. 45 

date the interest had been met, but nothing had sub- 
sequently been paid, either of principal or interest, 
and the sum of $250,000 was now due. The secretary 
stated, however, that if Congress would authorize him 
to receive the new funded bonds of the State, for the 
bonds held by him, funding principal and interest, he 
would deliver the old bonds and issue the college 
scrip. A bill to meet this exigency was drawn at 
once, placed in charge of Senator Powell Clayton and 
introduced in the Senate in January, 1872, In March 
of the same year another bill was introduced in the 
House of Representatives by Hon. James M. Hanks 
of Helena, that contemplated the issuance of this scrip 
without reference to the payment of this old debt due 
from the State. The House bill passed that body 
near the close of the session, and taken to the Senate 
was there the subject of an animated discussion that 
resulted in an amendment, to the effect that this scrip 
should not be delivered to the authorities of Arkansas 
until the State should make some satisfactory arrange- 
ment, by which its bonds, principal and interest, then 
held by the United States as Indian trust funds, should 
be funded in the new bonds of the State, authorized 
to be issued for this purpose. This, as was announced 
on the floor of the Senate by Senator Clayton, the 
State was ready to do ; and, to use his language, 
" the very moment the Secretary of the Interior comes 
forward and proposes to have these bonds funded the 
State authorities will do it." 

With this amendment the bill passed the Senate the 
day of the adjournment of Congress, and being hurried 
into the House, where it was compelled to go again in 
consequence of this amendment, it was there, through 



46 What is the Situation Now ? 

the indefatigable exertions of Mr. Hanks, and amid 
all the confusion of the closing hours of a Congress, 
pressed to a vote, and the measure became a law. 

This scrip was now issued and sold at ninety cents 
an acre — as high a price, it is believed, as was ob- 
tained for similar holdings by any State in the Union, 
when not located on the public domain by the receiv- 
ing university itself, and much higher than that for 
which some of the State recipients of this benefaction 
are known to have sold. 

The proceeds of the sale, less ten per cent, permis- 
sibly used in paying current expenses of the university, 
were made a building fund, the bonds of the county 
of Washington and town of Fayetteville becoming an 
endowment. The university building, perhaps the 
finest structure of the kind in the Southwest, holds a 
most commanding position in the city of Fayetteville, 
and, as Mr. Benjamin has well said, this university is 
now the great pride of every one in the State, irre- 
spective of party. 

Under an act of the Legislature, approved April 
25, 1873, the trustees of the university were also au- 
thorized and empowered to select a suitable site for a 
Branch Normal College, for the special use of the 
colored people, and to organize this adjunct in har- 
mony with the main institution at Fayetteville. This 
was promptly done, and the branch college located at 
Pine Bluff, in the Southeastern portion of the State, 
was in successful operation when the reconstruction 
period terminated. 

And yet Mr. Fishback does not say one word in 
favor of what was accomplished for the substantial 
good of the State during Republican rule. 



A71 Unfair Presentment. 47 

He finds place, however, aside from many other 
misleading statements (to which we have given some 
attention) for a remark that is equally at variance with 
a fair presentment of the facts. 

In comparing Republican with Democratic ex- 
penses, he says, page 308 : '' But it should be remem- 
bered that a very large part of the expenses under 
Democratic rule is for care of State Institutions built 
by Democrats, and not in existence during the Repub- 
lican regime y 

To those familiar with the facts this statement is 
simply ridiculous, and yet it should not be lightly con- 
sidered, when the object of " Why the solid South ? " 
is borne in mind, to wit : The influencing of opinion 
in the North. In short, if the presentation made by 
the other Southern States is as unfair and unjust as 
that for Arkansas, then " Why the solid South ? " as we 
have already said, is, by no means, entitled to the con- 
fidence of those to whom it is dedicated. 

Moreover, there comes to the surface here and 
there in this book, a vein of justification of the " Lost 
Cause," and criticism of the measures of the General 
Government for the restoration of law and order in 
the South, that will not meet with the approval of 
those men who were loyal to the Flag, whether in the 
army or out of it, at a time when the very life of the 
Nation hung tremblingly in the balance. 



We now ask attention to some important facts in 
the recent political activities of the country, that bear 
directly upon the immediate future, and show" a con- 
dition of affairs that demands correction. 



48 What is the Situation Now ? 

The act making an apportionment of Representa- 
tives in Congress among the several States under the 
eleventh census, approved February 7, 1891, provided 
that after the 3d of March, 1893, the House of 
Representatives shall be composed of 356 members, 
to be apportioned among the several States, as desig- 
nated in the act. Under this law the House of Repre- 
sentatives of the Fifty-third Congress came into being, 
and is now in session. 

The Standing and Select Committees of this Body 
are 56 in number, and the House itself, having a Demo- 
cratic majority, it was to be expected that the Demo- 
cratic party would hold the personftel of the majority 
in. each of these Committees, This it does. 

In the official Congressional Directory for the Fifty- 
second Congress, and in similar publications made 
with reference to many previous Congresses, the 
Standing Committees (which constitute a very large 
proportion of the entire number) are largely arranged 
in the order of their importance. 

In the official directory for the Fifty-third Congress 
this arrangement is departed from,and these committees 
are now, for the first time, presented in alphabetical 
order, and with no separation of the standing from the 
select committees, which has hitherto been the case. 

Taking these committees, however, in their entirety, 
we find that of their chairmanships the South has 33 
and the North 23 ; and examining the more important 
of them in the order observed for many years, we find 
that when 34 are told off, a series on expenditures in 
the various departments of the government is arrived 
at, foHowing which there is but one committee of 
special prominence — that on " Rules," 



House Committees. 49 

Adding this committee to the 34 it will be seen, 
upon examination, that of the chairmanships of the 
35 the South has 22 and the North thirteen. 

Their assignment is the following : To the South : 
" Rules " (the Speaker chairman), '' Elections," " Ways 
and Means," " Appropriations," '' Judiciary," '' Coin- 
age, Weights and Measures," " Inter-State and Foreign 
Commerce," " Rivers and Harbors," " Agriculture," 
" Foreign Affairs," " Post-Offices and Post Roads," 
" Public Lands," "Territories," "Railways and Canals," 
" Private* Land Claims, " " Public Buildings and 
Grounds," "Levees and Improvements of the Missis- 
sippi River," "Education," "Pensions," "Claims," 
" District of Columbia," and " Revision of the Laws," 
twenty -two. 

To the North : "Banking and Currency," " Mer- 
chant Marine and Fisheries," " Military Affairs," 
"Naval Affairs," "Indian Affairs," "Manufactures," 
" Mines and Mining," "Pacific Railroads," " Labor," 
" Militia," " Patents," ^*^ Invalid Pensions," and " War 
Claims," tJiirteen. 

Two of the Democratic members of the Committee on 
" Rules" are from the South — one from the North. 

Of the nine Democratic members of the Committee 
on "Elections," the chairman and five other members 
are from the South, and three from the North. 

The first, second, third and fourth places in the 
Committee on Ways and Means are filled by Demo- 
crats from the Southern States ; and of the eleven 
Democratic members of this committee six are from 
the South, y?z;<? from the North. 

In the Committee on Appropriations the first, second 
third and fourth places are likewise held by Southern 



50 W/iaf IS the Situation No7v ? 

Democrats ; and of the eleven Democratic members of 
this committee seveji are from the South, fou?' from 
the North. 

The chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary is 
from Texas. The second, third, fourth, fifth, tenth 
and eleventh places on this compiittee are also held 
by Southern Democrats, and of the Democratic mem- 
bers of the committee seven are from the South and 
four from the North. 

In the Committee on Banking and Currency there 
are eleven Democratic members, seven of whom are 
from the South, four from the North. 

The chairman of the Committee on Coinage,Weights 
and Measures is from Missouri ; and of his Demo- 
cratic colleagues in the committee, six are from the 
South and three from the North. 

The chairman of the Committee on Inter-State and 
Foreign Commerce is from Virginia. Second place is 
also held by the South ; and of the eleven Democratic 
members of this committee, six are from the Southern 
States and five from the Northern. 

The chairman of the Committee on Rivers and Har- 
bors is from Louisiana. The second, third, fourth 
fifth, seventh, eighth and tenth places are likewise 
held by Southern Democrats ; and of the eleven Dem- 
ocratic members of this very important committee, 
eight are from the South, three from the North, and of 
these three, one lives at Scituate, R. I., one at Jackson, 
Cal., and one at Appleton, Wis. New York, Chicago, 
Boston, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Mil- 
waukee, Minneapolis and St. Paul, and on the Pacific 
Coast, San Francisco and Portland, have no represen- 
tative whatever on this committee. 



House Committees. 51 

When the items of the River and Harbor bill are to 
be determined upon, so far as the committee is con- 
cerned, and these great centers of the nation's wealth 
are to receive consideration, they must go to a chair- 
man who lives at Shreveport, upon the upper waters 
of Red River in the North-western corner of Louisi- 
ana, and if, perchance, he is temporarily absent, his 
second in command, who lives at Vicksburg, Miss., 
will take the chair ; and if he, also, should fail to 
be forthcoming, when a hearing is to be had, the 
occupant of third place, who hails from Savannah, 
Ga., will call the committee to order. In his ab- 
sence, Alabama will follow with a member from Mo- 
bile, and should he omit to appear, Virginia will 
maintain the succession with a member from Warsaw.* 

The chairman of the Committee on Agriculture 
comes from Missouri. Second place is held by North 
Carolina, third, by South Carolina, and of the ten 
Democratic members of this committee, seven are from 
the South and three from the North. 

The Committee on Foreign Affairs takes its chair- 
man from Kentucky. Mississippi holds second place, 
and of the nine Democratic members of this com- 
mittee, six are from the South and three from the 
North. 



* On the 7th day of March, 1894 (since the above was written), 
the chairman of the Committee on Rivers and Harbors, Hon. 
Newton C. Blanchard, of Louisiana, was duly appointed a United 
States Senator from that State to succeed the Hon. Edward 
Douglass White, who had been nominated and confirmed as an 
associate- justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Hon. 
Thomas C. Catchings, of Mississippi, who, at the time of this 
appointment, was second in position on the committee on Rivers 
and Harbors, has now become its chairman. 



52 W/iat is the Situation Now? 

North Carolina has the chairmanship of the Com- 
mittee on Post Offices and Post Roads, and of the 
fii?ie Democrats on this committee, six are from South- 
ern States and three from Northern. 

*' Railways and Canals " are presided over by Miss- 
issippi — a State whose special prominence in this 
regard not even a microscope could discover — and 
" Public Buildings and Grounds " are remitted to the 
guidance of a member from Fayette Court House, 
Ala. Of the fiine Democrats in the Committee on 
Claims, five, including the chairman, are from the 
South, /^//r from the North, and in the Committee on 
Education, presided over by a member from Tennes- 
see, six of the Democratic majority are from the 
South, t7vo from the North. In short, the preponder- 
ance of Southern Democrats in these important com- 
mittees runs through the list, and embraces the ma- 
jority in party membership on twenty- four. In three, 
"Merchant Marine and Fisheries," "Railways and 
Canals " and " War Claims," there are severally four 
Northern Democrats and/^*//;- from the South, and in 
eight only is there a majority of Northern Democrats 
in the party membership. 

The Democrats in the Committee on " InvaUd Pen- 
sions" come entirely from the North ; but the Com- 
mittee on "Pensions" has a chairman from Georgia, 
and of its Democratic members /<?//;- are from North- 
ern and five from Southern States. 

It does not follow that a member of Congress will 
necessarily be his own successor, or that the dominant 
party in one Congress will control the next, yet Con- 
gressional committees have become so important a fac- 
tor in shaping the legislation of the country, that, next 



House of Representatives — How Controlled. 53 

to the choice of a Speaker, the settlement of member- 
ship upon these committees is the great source of 
anxiety — a coigne of vantage most eagerly sought 
after. 

Nor is this simply a matter of individual ambition. 
Great governmental policies can be made or marred 
by unity of action in these committees, and it is 
humiliating to see how the House of Representatives 
of the Fifty-third Congress is controlled by men, 
many of whom, thirty years ago, were straining every 
nerve to disrupt a nation, the recipients of whose 
mercy and pardon they are to-day. 

There are, indeed, more Democrats in this Con- 
gress from Southern than from Northern States, and 
as a rule their prior service is longer. These facts 
would naturally justify a greater prominence in com- 
mittee positions, and where official tenure is the re- 
sult of fair elections, there can be no just cause of 
complaint. But in numerous instances in the Southern 
States representation in this Congress is outrageously 
disproportioned to the vote cast, and utterly at war 
with the ratio. A fraudulent numerical strength is 
thus secured, and power and influence that should be 
swept away are brought to bear upon legislation. 



Let us take another view of the situation. The 
same law that regulated the membership of the Fifty- 
third Congress provided also that the election dis- 
tricts should not only be composed of contiguous 
territory, but that they should "contain, as nearly as 
practicable, an equal number of inhabitants." 



54 What is the Situation Now ? 

The ratio of representation based upon the eleventh 
census taken in the year 1890, was estabhshed at 
173,901. At the general election of November 8, 
1892, to choose Presidential Electors, there were also 
elected in the State of New York its members of the 
Fifty-third Congress. Their number is 34, and the 
aggregate vote cast at this election for all candidates 
was 1,296,645. 

The aggregate vote cast at the election of members 
in the same Congress from the States of Alabama, 
Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Vir- 
ginia, Tennessee and Louisiana was 1,255,105, a total 
less by 41,540 than that of the single State of New 
York, and yet these late rebellious States have 62 
representatives in the Fifty-third Congress, as against 
J4 from the State of New York. 

New York has the chairmanships of the Commit- 
tees on " Naval Affairs," " Patents," " Expenditures 
in the Department of Justice " and " Library," the 
last a joint committee, while the States to which we 
have just referred furnish the presiding officers for 
the Committee on " Rules " (the Speaker chairman) 
'' Elections," " Liter-State and Foreign Commerce," 
"Territories," "Railways and Canals," "Rivers and 
Harbors," " Public Buildings and Grounds," " Levees 
and Improvements of the Mississippi River," " Edu 
cation," " Pensions," " Expenditures in State Depart- 
ment," " Expenditures in Navy Department," " Ex- 
penditures in Post-Ofifice Department," "Expenditures 
in Interior Department," and " Expenditures in De- 
partment of Agriculture," in 3\\ fifteen. 

The States of New York and Ohio cast at their 
elections, held to choose members of this Congress, 



Inequalities in Representation. 55 

2,135,502 votes, and have together 55 representatives. 
The eleven rebellious States, adding North Carolina, 
Arkansas and Texas to the eight above mentioned, 
cast at their elections for members of the same Con- 
gress, an aggregate of 2,073,714 votes — 61,788 less 
than the number cast in the two States of New York 
and Ohio, and yet they have go representatives — J5 
more than the States of Ohio and New York. 

The States of Colorado, Michigan and Connecticut 
cast at their elections held for the same purpose 
721,027 votes, and together have 18 representatives. 

The States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, 
Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana cast 718,503 votes, 
— 2,524 less than the three Northern States last 
enumerated, but they have, unitedly, 42 members in 
this Congress, as against the 18 of Colorado, Connec- 
ticut and Michigan. 

The State of Indiana cast 549,953 votes. The 
States of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi 
and Louisiana cast 485,227 votes — 64,726 less than 
the single State of Indiana, and yet these five South- 
ern States have -^t* representatives in the Fifty-third 
Congress, while Indiana has but thirteen. 

The State of Iowa cast 441,392 votes and has eleven 
members of Congress. The States of South Carolina, 
Georgia, Mississippi and Florida cast 371,072 votes, 
70,320 less than the number cast in the State of Iowa, 
still these /<i'?^r Southern States have 27 representatives 
in this congress, as against eleven from Iowa. 

The State of New Jersey cast 334,882 votes, and has 
eight representatives in this Congress. The States of 
Mississippi, South Carolina and Georgia cast 335,650 
votes — only 768 more than the number polled in 



56 IV hat is the Situation Now ? 

New Jersey alone, yet these three Southern States 
have 25 representatives in the same Congress, one 
more than three times as many as the State of New 
Jersey. 

The State of California cast 227,061 votes and has 
seven members in this Congress, while the State of 
Mississippi likewise has seven, representing an aggre- 
gate vote of only 51,024. 

The State of Minnesota has seven members and 
cast 259,215 votes. The State of South Carolina cast 
but 68,626 votes, still it hdiS seven members in the same 
body. 

The States of New Hampshire and Maine have to- 
gether six members in the Fifty-third Congress, and 
cast unitedly 213,378 votes — 99,223 more than were 
cast in Louisiana, and yet this Southern State likewise 
has six members in the same congress. 

There are the following eleven Congressional Districts 
in the Northern States, in each one of which more 
votes were cast in the election of members of the 
Fifty-third Congress than were polled for the same 
purpose in the entire State of Mississippi. 

The First Illinois, consisting of a portion of the 
city of Chicago and a number of towns in the County 
of Cook — 79,966, represented by J. Frank Aldrich, a 
Republican. 

The Seventh Kansas — 37 counties — 66,464, repre- 
sented by Jeremiah Simpson, a Populist. 

The Third Illinois, part of Chicago, 66,044, repre- 
sented by A. C. Durborow, Jr., a Democrat. 

The Fourth Illinois, part of Chicago and several 
towns in Cook County — 66,016, represented by Julius 
Goldzier, a Democrat. 



Inequalities in Representation. 57 

The Fourth Pennsylvania, eight wards in the city 
of Philadelphia — 60,618, represented by John C. Rey- 
burn, a Republican. 

The Seventh Indiana — -/d^^r counties — 57,051, repre- 
sented by W. D. Bynum, a Democrat. 

The Second Connecticut, the counties of Middlesex 
and New Haven, 54,219, represented by J. P. Pigott, 
a Democrat. 

The Fifth Pennsylvania, seven wards in Philadelphia 
— 54,064, represented by Alfred C. Harmar, a Repub- 
lican. 

The Twenty-Fourth Pennsylvania — three counties 
and several additional boroughs and townships — 
52,383, represented by William A. Sipe, a Democrat. 

The Twenty Eighth New York, the counties of 
Wayne, Cayuga, Cortland, Ontario and Yates — 
5 1,907, represented by Sereno E. Payne, a Republican ; 
and the Second Colorado, 42 counties — 5 1,806 — rep- 
resented by John Bell, a Populist. 

The entire vote cast at the elections that resulted in 
the choice of these eleve7i men was 660,538, while 
the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Missis- 
sippi, Louisiana and Arkansas casting together only 
623,379 votes, or in other words 37,159 less than were 
cast in the eleven districts mentioned, still have 39 
representatives in this Congress, nearly four times as 
many. 

Of these eleven men five are Democrats, and they 
represent 295,713 votes, while the 22 Democrats 
sent to this Congress by the States of South Caro- 
lina, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi represent a 
voted strength of only 269,227, or 26,486 less than that 
of their ^z;^ Northern party associates. 



58 What is the Situation Now? 

The highest vote cast at the election of a single 
member of the Fifty-third Congress was in the First 
District of Illinois, where, as stated, J. Frank Aldrich, 
a Republican, was chosen ; the entire vote of his dis- 
trict being 79,966. 

The loivest was in the Third District of Mississippi, 
consisting of ten counties, where Thomas C. Catchings 
of Vicksburg, a Democrat, was elected, the vote 
standing : 

Republican, 159 

Democratic, 2,495 

Total, 2,654 

and yet the population of the district at the time of 
this election is given as 184,297. 

Here is a difference of 77,312 in the voted strength 
of two districts, yet having equal representation. 

Nor is this all. The exercise of power by these 
men so elected in the Southern States does not stop 
with the mere casting of votes in the House. They 
have received as important positions in committees 
as though they had been elected under circumstances 
that brought out a full or even a large vote in their 
respective districts. Many of them were members of 
the Fifty-second Congress, and this fact coupled with 
continuous service in still earlier Congresses has given 
them the right, in accordance with long established 
usage in such matters, to expect from a speaker of 
their own party prominent, if not leading, positions 
upon the House committees. 

In the Fifty-second Congress they obtained both; 
and they have done so in the Congress now in 
■ session. 



Inequalities in Representation. 59 

Mr. Catchings — and we refer to him respectfully — 
was a member of the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, and Fifty- 
first Congresses, as well as the Fifty-second. In the last- 
mentioned Congress he was chairman of the important 
Committee on "Railways and Canals;" second in posi- 
tion on the still more important Committee on " Rivers 
and Harbors," and in the Committee on " Rules," 
which exercises more power than any other committee 
in the House of Representatives (a committee of five 
men), was one of the three Democratic members, all of 
whom were from the late rebellious States. 

As we have stated, the Fifty-third Congress is now 
in session. Its standing committees have been ap- 
pointed, and Mr. Catchings is again, as in the Fifty- 
second Congress, chairman of the Committee on 
" Railways and Canals ;" second in position on " Rivers 
and Harbors," and on " Rules " stands next to the 
Speaker. In the councils of his party the extreme 
meagerness of his vote does not rise in judgment 
against him, and he is apparently as strong as though 
the election in his district had been full and fair. 

On the other hand William D. Bynum of Indiana (a 
Democrat who entered Congress at the same time with 
Mr. Catchings, and whose continuous service runs 
likewise through the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, Fifty-first, 
and Fifty-second Congresses, and at whose election to 
the Fifty-third Congress 57,051 votes were cast; 6,027 
more than were polled in the entire State of Missis- 
sippi) simply holds tenth place in the Committee on 
'' Ways and Means." At the same time, in addition to 
the prominence given to Mr. Catchings, Mississippi 
has the chairmanship of the Committee on "Levees 
and Improvements of the Mississippi River," and third 



6o What is the Situation Noiv ? 

place in the same committee ; second place on 
" Foreign Affairs ;" second on " Indian Affairs ;" third 
on "Judiciary;" third on "Post Offices and Post 
Roads ;" fifth on " Pacific Railroads ;" sixth on " Edu- 
cation ;" sixth on " Coinage, Weights and Measures," 
and seventh on "Naval Affairs." 



While United States Senators are not directly chosen 
by the people, the legislatures that create them are ; 
and the same influences that so largely prevail in the 
South when Congressmen are to be elected are domi- 
nant also in the choice of State Legislators. The re- 
sult is seen in the composition of the Senate. And 
the very conspicuous preponderance of Southern 
Democrats in that body is the direct outgrowth of the 
same unfairness in elections that has sent so many men 
into the House of Representatives of the Fifty-third 
Congress, whose influence and committee positions are 
in an inverse ratio to the magnitude of the vote in the 
districts that elected them. 

There are 46 Standing Committees in the United 
States Senate. In this number there are five minor com- 
mittees of which Republicans are the chairmen, and 
tivo of which the chairmen are Populists. Of the 
remaining 39 the chairmen of 30 are Democrats from 
Southern States, and nine have Northern Democratic 
presiding officers. In the entire number of these com- 
mittees there is a majority of Southern Democrats in 
38 ; a majority of Northern Democrats in three, and 
an equal number from the North and South in five. 
Of the most important committees the North has the 
Democratic chairmanship of five, " Finance," " Im- 
Naval Affairs," " Pensions" and " Pa- 



Senate Committees. 6t 

cific Railroads." The South has the chairmanship of 
" Agriculture and Forestry," "Appropriations," '' Civil 
Service and Retrenchment," "Claims," '^ Coast De- 
fences," "Commerce," " District of Columbia," " Fish- 
eries," "Foreign Relations," ' Improvement of the Miss- 
issippi River and its Tributaries," "Indian Affairs," 
"Inter-State Commerce," "Judiciary," "Manufac- 
tures," " Military Affairs," " Patents," " Post Offices 
and Post Roads," " Privileges and Elections," "Public 
Buildings and Grounds," " Public Lands," " Rail- 
roads," " Revision of the Laws of the United States," 
"Rules," and "Territories" — twenty-four. 

Second place in 22 and third place in 24 of these 
29 committees are held by Southern Senators. 

In the Committee on "Appropriations" there are 
five Democratic members, the first four of whom are , 
from the South. .'' 

On " Claims " there are four Democrats, all from 
the South; on "Commerce" six; the first y^z'^ of 
whom are from the South; on "Finance" six; the 
first two from the North, the remaining /(?//;- from the 
South ; on " Foreign Relations " five ; the first, second 
third and fifth of whom are from the South ; on the 
" Judiciary " six; the first, second, third and sixth 
from the South; on " Military Affairs " five; first three 
from the South; on " Naval Affairs ''five; all from the 
South except the chairman; on " Post Offices and Post 
Roads" six; first, third, fourth and fifth from the 
South; on " Privileges and Elections ''five; first three 
from the South; on " Public Buildings and Grounds," 
five; first, second, third and fifth from the South; on 
" Railroads " six ; first, second, third and sixth from 
the South; on " Rules " three ; all from the South ; on 



62 What is the Situation Noiv ? 

" Territories " j/jt:y first, third, fourth and fifth from 
the South, and on '^Pacific Railroads " /z^^y three of 
whom are from the South. 



The influence upon legislation of this condition of 
affairs in the House of Representatives, as well as 
the Senate, is too obvious for comment ; and were 
elections throughout the South- as full and fair as 
they are in the North that condition would not exist. 
The reason for it, however, is easily given. It is a 
virtual suppression of the Republican vote throughout 
a very large area in the late rebellious States. There 
are portions of Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, 
and Tennessee, where this is not the fact, and here and 
there other oases of lesser magnitude; but, in large 
part the seceding States of War-time are to-day a 
political desert, where there is no more freedom of 
opinion as that freedom is expressed in the North 
than prevails in the shadow of the Kremlin 

On the first day of November, 1890, the State of 
Mississippi adopted a new constitution. In the con- 
stitutional convention on the nth day of September, 
1890, Judge S. S. Calhoon, president of the convention, 
and a delegate from Hinds County, is reported to 
have spoken as follows: 

"It is a law of Divine ordination that the white race cannot 
tolerate divided sovereignty; and any legislature will have the stamp 
of idiocy upon it that will assemble such a body as this, with the 
enormous attendant expense with an object short of this. Let 
the truth be told if it bursts the bottom out of the Universe. I 
do not share the apprehension of those who think that any change 
of the constitution that would have the effect of depriving a great 
number of the right to vote, would involve the State of Mississippi 
in a conflict with Congress. . . . But, if the tvorst comes to 



Mississippi. 6 -i 

the worst, and we lose some of otcr representation in Congress, we 
can stand it complacently if allowed to manage our local and State 
affairs undisturbed. Even the presidency is a matter of insignifi- - 
cance, compared with local self-government. I do not propose 
to mince matters and hide behind a subterfuge, but asked by any- 
body if it was the ptcrpose of the convention to restrict negro 
suffrage, 1 zvould frankly answer : Yes, that is what we 

ARE HERE FOR." 

The article on franchise in this constitution is a 
studied attempt to keep within the Constitution of the 
United States, but in practical application has trifled 
with justice and converted the ballot into an instru- 
ment of tyranny and oppression. The registration of 
voters provided for was in due time had, and what 
the result of it was will appear in the following state- 
ment, published at the time in many of the newspapers 
of the country : 

•'Jackson, Mississippi, August 14, 1892. ^ 

'' How effectually the New Constitution of Missis- 
sippi has squelched and destroyed the negro vote in 
the States, is shown in the registration just completed, 
which has cut that vote down from 147,205 to 8,615. 

" Just think of it ! 8,000 voters for over 600,000 pop- 
ulation. In 1880 there were 130,278 color.ed voters, a 
colored majority of 22,024. To-day the negro males 
over twenty-one years of age who would be voters in 
any other State, number 147,205, and the colored ma- 
jority is 37,105, but the new constitution changes all 
this, and cuts the 147,205 voters down to 8,615. 

"OnlyV;/^ colored man in 17 is allowed to vote. 

'' The late Constitutional Convention of Mississippi 
was called for the avowed purpose of disfranchising 
the negroes, so as to render Mississippi safely Demo- 



64 W/iat is the Situation Now 2 

cratic under all circumstances. Senator George 
warned the Mississippians that the negroes were 
getting more numerous — were in an actual majority 
already, and increasing their majority every year — 
and he advised them, now that it was possible, now 
that they had political control of the State, to make 
such changes in the law as would render it impossible 
for the negroes ever to get in power again, by any 
combination such as that recently made in Alabama. 
Senator George won his fight. The convention met 
and went to work to change the electoral franchise. 
The first change was to limit the vote to those who 
can read and write. This, however, was not sufficient. 
It left some 37,000 negro voters, and as those voters 
are increasing in number, as the number of educated 
negroes is steadily increasing, the chances were that 
the colored vote would soon become a danger. To 
still further cut down the number of colored voters, a 
clause was inserted requiring voters to pay a heavy 
poll tax for the support of the schools. This must be 
paid long in advance of the election, or the voter loses 
his electoral franchise. The Democrats argue, and 
with reason, that the negroes would be careless in the 
matter of paying this tax or preserving the tax receipts. 
"Again, the provision disfranchising illiterate per- 
sons disfranchised 10,000 whites, many of them old 
Confederate soldiers. In order to find a loop- hole for 
them, the so called "understanding clause" was in- 
serted in the constitution. By this an illiterate voter 
is granted the franchise if he can understand and ex- 
plain any clause of the State Constitution read to him. 
This can, of course, be easily worked in the interest 
of the white voter. The register reads a simple para- 



Mississippi. 65 

graph to the illiterate white applicant, who easily ex- 
plains it; but the negro applicant gets a harder nut to 
crack about Equity and Chancery Courts, and is re- 
jected. 

"The net result of the new constitution is shown ' 
in the following registration : — 

Whites, over 21 years of age, .... 110,100 
Negroes, over 21 years of age, . . . 147,205 

White registered voters, 68,127 

Negro registered voters, 8,615 

" The new constitution has struck off from the regis- 
tration 180,563 voters, and converted a negro majority 
of 37,105 into a white majority of 59,912, a change of 
96,617. (9//^ negro in every// is registered; two whites 
in QWQxy three. The while registration would be larger 
but for the fact that there is nothing to fear from the 
negroes. By eliminating the negro vote, the Mississippi 
Constitution has induced one-third of the white citizens 
not to register, and the white registration is less thaa 
ever before. Every county in Mississippi has a white 
majority. Last year Bolivar had a majority of negro 
voters — to-day it is white. Thirty -three counties 
have less than 100 negro votes. Yazoo County with 
6,000 negroes of voting age has only nine registered, 
or one to each 667. Noxubee is even worse, with 
only four colored voters, or one to each 1,500 colored 
men. This can best be understood by calling atten- 
tion to the fact that if the electoral franchise were 
similarly restricted in Nevada, that State would have 
but seven voters and Rhode Island onlyy^z'^. 

" In Lowndes County the negroes do slightly better, 
but even there there is but one colored vote to each 
310 men. In the Southern tier of counties on the 



66 What IS tJie Situation Now 2 

Gulf, about one negro man in eight or ten is regis- 
tered, which is the best average. 

" The New Constitution of Mississippi renders it im- 
possible for the negroes, notwithstanding they are a 
majority in the State, to elect a constable. They 
cannot poll a thousand votes in any Congressional 
district, except the celebrated shoe-string district, 
composed of the negro counties along the Missis- 
sippi River, and intended to be given to the Repub- 
licans, so as to save the other six districts for the 
Democrats ; and even there the negroes cannot poll 
2,000 votes. 

*' Elections have become so certainly Democratic in 
Mississippi, under the new constitution, that even the 
whites do not feel interested enough to register, and 
one-third of them have forfeited the electoral fran- 
chise for the approaching election." 



This election took place in November, 1892, and 
was a very emphatic illustration of the great outrage 
that had been committed upon the Republicans of 
the State. 

The vote for presidential electors, as officially an- 
nounced, was as follows : 

Democratic, 39.965 

People's Party, 10,250 

Republican, 1,373 

Total, 51.588 

At the same time, and with substantially the same 
vote, the State of Mississippi elected seven Congress- 



Florida, 67 

men, while, as we have stated, there are eleven 
Congressional districts in the Northern States, 
in each of which more votes were cast at this elec- 
tion than were polled in the entire State of Missis- 
sippi. 

In other of the Gulf States repression has taken 
a different form, but is still bold and glaring. And 
here we quote, at some length, from the minority re- 
port of the Committee on Privileges and Elections, in 
the Senate of the United States, made to that body, 
January 11, 1894. 

The bill then pending, to which this report relates, 
was one to repeal all Federal statutes having refer- 
ence to supervisors of elections and special deputy 
marshals. 



FLORIDA. 



'' The governor appoints for each county a super- 
visor of registration, who appoints a registrar for each 
voting precinct. 

'' The governor also appoints the county commis- 
sioners, who appoint the election inspectors for each 
voting district, and there are the eight ballot boxes, 
as in South Carolina. 

" The Republican convention of Florida in 1892 de^ 
cided to put into the field no tickets — State, Congres- 
sional or National — giving their reasons in their 
resolutions as follows : 

"The Florida election laws are damnable in their conception 
and fiendish in their operation. They are the result of a long- 
studied plan to rob the majority of its liberty." 



68 



IV/ia^ is the Situation Now ? 



*' The resolutions further recite the vote in certain 
counties, and in the State in 1 884 and 1890, as follows: 





1884. 


1890. 


Counties. 


Dem. 


Rep. 


Dem. 


Rep. 


Leon, .... 


834 


2,198 


1,206 


60 


Duval, .... 


i,88q 


3,387 


1,805 


284 


Marion, . . . 


1.494 


2,007 


1,416 


232 


Putnam, .... 


1,094 


1,158 


1,126 


265 


Escambia, . . . 


1,896 


1,861 • 


1,451 


102 



'^ In Orange County the Republican vote in 1888 
was 1^515-, and in 1890 it was 420. 

" The total vote of the State in 1884 was 31,799 
Democrat and 28,031 Republican ; in 1890 it was 
29,185 Democrat, and 4,637 Republican. What has 
become of the Republican vote ? 

" The committee further said : 

" Robbery, murder, assassination are evidences of the patri- 
otism and of the crimes committed in the interest of Democracy. 

" A Democrat w^as appointed by a Democratic governor as clerk 
of the circuit court of Osceola County, as a reward for services 
rendered the Democratic party in destroying the election returns 
of Brevard County in 1876. 

" Another was rewarded for services rendered in robbing 2,000 
Republicans of their votes in Leon County, by making him Pres- 
ident of the Senate in 1889. 

Deputy U. S Marshal Sanders went to Gadsden County in 
March, i8go, for the purpose of serving papers upon Democrats 
under indictment for election frauds, and was brutally murdered 
in broad daylight, while in a buggy with a prominent Democrat 
leader — the fatal shots being fired at such close range that his 
body was badly powder-burned — and no arrests were made or 
rewards offered. The Republican vote of Gadsden County in 
1884 was 881 ; in the election of 1890, six months after this mur- 
der, there was not a single Republican vote cast in the county. 



Louisiana. — South Carolina. 69 

" Deputy U. S. Marshal L'Estrange was assassinated in 
Sumter County the same year, while in the discharge of his du- 
ties, and again no arrests were made nor rewards offered. 

" The Republican vote of Sumter County in 1884 was 524 ; in 
1S90 was 51. . . . We denounce the Florida election laws 
as tyrannical in substance, and the methods and manner of carry- 
ing them into effect as infamous and equivalent to a total disfran- 
chisement of the entire Republican party of the State." 

LOUISIANA. 

" In Louisiana the governor has appointed for each 
of the 57 parishes a returning officer, who ap- 
points the comrhissioners and clerks of election. In 
the Parish of Orleans there is appointed by. the gov- 
ernor a supervisor of registration, who appoints the 
commissioners and clerks of election for the 91 
polling places. 

"By the act of July 5, 1882, it would appear that 
the sheriff is made the returning officer outside of 
Orleans. 

SOUTH CAROLINA. 

" The governor appoints for each county a supervisor 
of registration, and also three commissioners of elec- 
tions at each polling place ; and there are, as is well 
known, eight election boxes to confuse the voters, 
namely : For governor and lieutenant-governor, i ; 
other State officers, 2 ; circuit solicitor, 3 ; State Sen- 
ator, 4 ; members of the legislature, 5 ; county officers, 
6 ; representative in Congress, 7, and presidential 
electors, 8. 

"The Republican State Committee of 1884 in an 
address dated October 6, 1884, thus describes the 
effect of these laws : 

" We denounce the registration and election laws of this State 
as a horrible conspiracy against the rights of the people. The 



7© What is the Situation Now ? 

registration of the voters of this State, as practiced, is a sham, 
and would be a delusion but for the fearful reality of its injustice 
and deprivations. Not only is every supervisor of registration an 
active Democrat, but the position is looked to as a reward for parti- 
san services. Under the provisions of the law, every qualified voter 
who failed to register prior to the election of 1882 is disfranchised 
forever, without the supervisor in his discretion deems it advisable 
to allow a subsequent registration, so that, in effect, the disability 
attaches only to Republicans. 

" We charge that while Republicans are required to personally 
take the registration oath, that it is not only a common practice 
for Democrats to register by proxy, but that in many instances 
local politicians have received the certificates of those Democrats 
in their vicinity who failed to obtain them through indifference or 
otherwise, and they remain unissued, without the person votes the 
regulation ticket. 

" We further charge that every possible obstacle is put in the 
way of Republicans getting new certificates in case of loss, or 
change of residence, while every facility is extended to Democrats 
similarly circumstanced. Instances have occurred in which the 
registration officers have unblushingly stated that they regarded 
the law as intended to operate against Republicans, and that they 
should discharge their duties so as to effect that end " 

"The registration books cannot be examined, and a 
list of the names cannot be taken, nor will they 
be furnished, while a suggestion that the names be 
published would be regarded as puerile and ridicu- 
lous. 

" But, even this registration confers no important 
rights, as the voter can only cast his ballot upon pres- 
entation of his certificate of registration. It is the 
boast of the Democrats that this law has been so 
manipulated that 30,000 Republicans are disfran- 
chised. 

" The twin brother to the registration iniquity is the 
eight ballot box fraud. 



South Carolina. 71 

'' The commissioners and managers of election are 
Democrats, selected for their willingness and ability to 
serve their party successfully. Under the law no one 
is allowed to read or explain to the voter either of his 
eight tickets. The Republican voter has to enter the 
polling place alone ; he sees behind the boxes hostile 
managers eager to-entrap him into a mistake. They 
rejoice in his bewilderment and credulity, and often 
disgrace themselves in joining in the levity of the 
Democratic bystanders, who poke fun at and seek to 
embarrass the ignorant and timid, but honest and 
earnestly sincere voter. 

"At some places he finds the boxes on a revolving 
table to prevent his acting on information about their 
respective locations : at others their positions are fre- 
quently changed, and innumerable other devices 
equally detestable resorted to, to distract and cheat 
the voter out of his purpose to cast an honest ballot. 

" With the Democratic voters, however, everything is 
made easy and pleasant, especially if they are illiterate. 
They find the desired ticket on top of the appropriate 
box, and but little heed is given to the presentation of 
their certificates. Innumerable instances are known 
in which the Republican voter has been asked for his 
certificate for inspection, and its being returned with 
directions to vote it, which through embarrassment is 
often done, thus losing his ballot and disfranchising 
himself. These Democratic managers and bystanders 
engage in a festival of fun as they toll on and mislead 
illiterate Republicans and witness their mistakes. 

" The polling places are located in objectionable and 
inconvenient places — sometimes at the top of a nar- 
row pair of stairs, sometimes in a cellar, and invariably 



72 What is the Situation Now 2 

where scrutiny is impossible. After the closing of the 
polls no Republican is allowed to witness the count, 
and under the laws of this State, which permit the ex- 
cess ballots to be drawn out where the votes exceed 
the voters, a very carnival o'f crime is perpetrated. 

" And yet those managers engaged in this pastime of 
frivolity and iniquity are sworn officers, and thus trifle 
with and nullify the most important rights of citizen- 
ship. To such an extent has this prostitution of 
sacred functions been carried on, and so notorious 
have been the frauds and perjury practiced, that the 
public conscience has been debauched and the morals 
and minds of the people debased and familiarized with 
crime. 

"■ In an address of January 8, 1889, the chairman of 
the committee further says: 

" The recent election in South Carolina was a miserable .farce, 
and justifies an effort to bring its significance to a knowledge of 
the people. Out of a vote of more than 120,000 the Republicans 
were suffered to have counted but 13,740. This" is a dismal con- 
firmation of preexisting fears. It fully vindicates the confidence 
of the Democrats in the capabilities of their election system to 
produce any desired result. The machine is known to operate so 
effectually that the voters of one party have become apathetic, 
while those of the other are disheartened. The result is dis- 
counted and canvassed in advance, and the so-called election is 
but the formal registry of what has been ordained. The knowl- 
edge of what is known will happen is the chief explanation of the 
smallness of the 58,730 votes cast for the Democratic State ticket, 
which is barely one-half of their full number, while the difference 
between that vote and the 65,286 votes cast for the electors, rep- 
resents some of the false counting done at the Federal polls. 
. . . The late election demonstrated the effectual suppression 
of the elective franchise in this State, and the utter futility of con- 
tending against the infamous system under which they are held. 



The Public Conscience. 73 

The rights of suffrage are annihilated. . . . The election 
system in South Carolina radically differs from that of any other 
State. Its partisan purpose is not even concealed. It openly 
violates every principle of right, justice and fairness. It was en- 
acted to enable the few required to work its machinery to accom- 
plish all that the masses of the party had been able to achieve 
through lawlessness, fraud and brutal crimes. There is now no oc- 
casion to resort to the revolutionary methods of 1876, the tissue 
ballot frauds of 1878, nor the wholesale ballot-box stuffing of 1880. 
This intricate and complicated election machinery, as the Charles- 
ton News and Courier aptly terms it, has fulfilled its mission and 
proven even better adapted to its purposes than was contemplated 
by the conspirators through whom it was invented and construc- 
ted. Its principal and most effective features are the registration 
of the voters, the multiplicity of the ballot-boxes, and the partisan 
boards of election officers. All are skillfully adjusted and essential 
for thorough effectiveness, but the registration is the most vital. 
In the way it is manipulated it is not believed over one third of the 
Republicans of the State are quaUfied to vote." 



Fortunately, however, the public conscience is not 
dead to these inroads upon the right of suffrage. It is 
patient, long-suffering and not easy to arouse, but 
when awakened will assert itself with a vigor and di- 
rectness that will crush out this ]Mississippi plan, this 
South Carolina plan, and all other schemes that may 
be devised to run in substantial accord therewith. 

It is better, as a general proposition, that the negroes 
of the South should divide, politically, and they will do 
so, when fairly treated. Meantime, no well-informed 
man is deceived by the cant and humbug of ap- 
prehended negro supremacy in the Southern States. 
Colored men naturally wish to vote as they think 
proper, but it is not true that as a race they are 
consumed with the idea of power and control in 



74 What is the Situation JVoiv ? 

the Southern States. No man who has Hved in the 
South and endeavored to deal fairly and justly with 
these people is apprehensive of domination on their 
part. They are willing to be led politically, but 
by friends, not enemies. They are citizens of the 
United States, and they know it, and they simply ask 
the protection that by the fundamental law of the land 
is theirs. Yet, whoever goes into certain portions of 
the Gulf States and some of the adjacent territory, 
more particularly into the smaller towns, and to neigh- 
borhoods where plantations are large and negroes 
numerous, and endeavors to lift these negroes to the 
plane of civilization upon which they are unquestion- 
ably capable of moving, and to aid them in securing 
their rights at the ballot box, becomes, in the elegant 
phraseology of these localities, a "carpet bagger," a 
term that practically means those obnoxious persons 
from the North who going into certain portions of the 
Southern States to live, dare to be as open in the 
declaration of their political sentiments, as they are 
and can be anywhere in the old Free States of the 
North. 

And as long as this continues to be the fact, just 
so long will immigration seek the Northwest, as it 
now does, and will capital that moves to certain 
localities in the South run the risk of civil commo- 
tion. 

The immortal proclamation of January i, 1863, de- 
clared the negro a freeman, and by the Constitution 
and Statutes of the United States his freedom has been 
made more secure. Civil rights were provided for 
and guaranteed ; still, such has been the trend 
of events that the struggle for his enfranchisement 



The JVegro as a Citizen. 75 

is still on, and it will be as obstinate as " Banquo's 
Ghost," until the logic of President Lincoln's great 
war measure is anchored as firmly in law and its en- 
forcement, as is the memory of this great man in the 
affections of the American people. 

It is idle to say that the negro is ignorant, hope- 
lessly ignorant, and that he cannot be made to become 
an intelligent citizen. In August, 1892, the Rev. [. 
G. Price of Salisbury, N. C, and Mr. S. (;. 
Atkins of Winston, in the same State, both colored 
men, and who take an active part in the movement to 
develop and improve the condition of the negroes of 
the South, spent a week in Buffalo. 

Dr. Price was at that time the President of Livings- 
tone College, located at Salisbury, and one of the lead- 
ing institutions of the South for the education of the 
colored people.* 

Mr. Atkins was Secretary of the Department of 
Education of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion 
Church. 

* Dr. Price was born of a free mother and slave father at Eliza- 
beth City, N. C, February 10, 1854, and died at Salisbury, 
N. C, October 25, 1S93. He did not learn the alphabet until he 
was eleven years of age. His father dying while he was still a 
boy, he nevertheless was able to keep himself in school, by work- 
ing part of the time, and in the year 1879 graduated at Lincoln 
University at the head of his class. He had already developed 
unusual powers as an orator, and soon became a preacher, lec- 
turer and educator. 

In August, 1881, at the age of 27, he sailed for England as a 
delegate to the Ecumenical Council which met at London in Sep- 
tember of that year. In the council he distinguished himself as 
an orator and speaker, and so impressed the people of England 
that he was invited to remain in the country and give a course of 



76 IV/ml is the Situation Now? 

Both bright and able men, and familiar with the 
various phases of the negro problem in the Southern 
States, they were interviewed by The Express, and 
that interview is so pertinent and so well presents, 
among other things, the growth of the negro in ca- 
pacity and intelligence, that we take the liberty of 
here inserting a portion of it : 

" The condition of the negro people of the South is improving 
every year," said Dr. Price, "and the signs of hopefulness are 
bright and encouraging. Our educational facilities are increasing 
in scope and efficiency. In material possessions the people are 
showing industrial and economical tendencies that are surprising. 
For instance, they are securing homes of their own ; entering 
into commerce, banking, real estate, and other lines of business. 
The negroes have successful banks in Birmingham, Ala., Rich- 
mond, Ya., and Chattanooga, Tenn. They have several success- 
ful drug stores in different parts of the South, while grocery and 
dry goods establishments, run by negroes, are rapidly growing up 
in almost every Southern town of any considerable size. Real 
estate companies are being developed, many of them on a large 
scale. It seems our people are now beginning to realize the 
necessity of combining their forces for the development of the 
resources around them, and they are being encouraged so to do." 

" How lately have negroes begun to be interested in these busi- 
ness matters?" 

lectures. This he did, and during a sojourn of about twelve 
months, accumulated $10,000, which he brought back to Salis- 
bury, N. C, then his home. He soon became President of 
Livingstone College, located at Salisbury, and continued to be 
such until his death. 

To him more than to any other person this college is indebted 
for its success. He traveled much in its behalf; was kindly and 
hospitably received and remarkably successful in procuring sub- 
stantial assistance. The degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor 
of Divinity were conferred upon him, and at the time of his early 
death he stood in the front rank of the notable men of his race. 



Educational Progress. 77 

" During the last ten years a great impetus has been given to 
such enterprises. The increased intelUgence of the negro people 
has been a very important factor in causing them to take hold of 
these business enterprises. Twenty years ago they did not realize 
what prospective investments were calculated to do for them. In 
other words, they have been encouraged by the spirit of the times, 
which has had such broad results in the new development now so 
manifest in the South." 

" What can you say of educational progress among the 
negroes ? " 

" The progress has been wonderful. It is worthy of note that 
whenever a school house has been opened negroes quickly enter. 
In fact, the educational provisions are not at all adequate to the 
demands of our people, but they are being continually increased. 
The schools of high grade started and largely maintained by 
Northern benevolence are crowded every year, and the need of 
increased facilities is very apparent. This matter of provision for 
education is really very imperative, since the negro has to do his 
own work of instruction in the public schools. 

"Schools in the South are separate, you know, there being 
negro teachers for the negro schools, and white teachers for white 
schools. The race lines in this matter are very marked, and for 
the present must remain so. Hence, a competent teaching force 
is one of our increasing necessities, which can only be met by 
educating the negroes themselves as teachers and leaders for their 
own race. 

"It is encouraging, however, to see what has been done in 
this direction. The negro people are not only taking advantage 
of the facilities afforded them, but are beginning to support and 
maintain their own institutions, which get no State aid, but are 
maintained from funds contributed by negro organizations. 
Among these are Livingstone College at Salisbury, N. C, 
with 300 to 400 students, where normal and classical courses 
are taught. To this institution alone the negro people pay about 
$12,000 a year for its support. Other institutions, such as Allen 
University in South Carolina, and Morris Brown College in 
Georgia, are supported by the negro people. These institutions 
are trying to cultivate self-reliance among the people." 

"Are the courses in these schools confined to books?'' 



L ofC. 



7 8 What is the Situation Now? 

" Many of these and other schools of the South have industrial 
departments in which students are learning the trades. These 
are becoming indispensable features of the high-grade work of 
education among our people. Many young men going out from 
these industrial schools are among our most successful printers, 
carpenters and workmen in other trades." 

" In number, doctor, what can you say of your , schools ? " 

" We have about lOO schools of high grade — institutes, semi- 
naries, colleges and universities — for 'the education of our negro 
youth. These institutions have from 25,000 to 30,000 young 
men and women students every year, and these are influencing 
about 2,000,000 people in the school rooms and homes. In the 
public schools there are about 1,500,000 children. The negro 
teachers number about 20,000. These figures are far ahead of 
the expectations of the most sanguine of our friends, who wit- 
nessed the beginning of our work twenty-five years ago," 

" What do you find the relations between the races now to 
be?" 

" I cannot speak for the whole South, but in North Carolina 
our relations are very harmonious. We have no 'Jim Crow' or 
separate cars for the two races. Our negro people ride in first- 
class cars when they pay first-class fare. There is no friction 
between the races and no prospect of a race war. In business 
matters our relations are cordial. We find moneyed men in our 
State always ready to cooperate with negroes in business enter- 
prises that look towards their improvement. I confess and regret 
that these encouraging conditions do not obtain in all the Southern 
States. It is my observation that there is a New South and an Old 
South, and we feel that encouragement ought to be given to all 
endeavors that mean the promotion of New South tendencies. 
What I mean by the New South is an adjustment to the new 
conditions resulting from freedom and its consequent manhood 
rights. By the Old South I mean the indisposition to recog- 
nize these conditions. For instance, in States like Alabama, 
Mississippi and Georgia they have separate car laws, which mean 
not only a separation of the races, but a humiliation and degra- 
dation of the negro people, which to our mind is unkind and un- 
just. The negroes are law-abiding, and the better class, when 
they travel, seek comfort and are willing to pay for it, but are too 



J 



Educational Pj-ogress. 79 

often made to pay hrst-class fare and given second-class accom- 
modations. Very often intelligent, well-dressed and refined 
negro people are, by this injustice, forced to take accommodations 
with the criminal classes. I am glad to say, however, that in my 
own State of North Carolina, and in South Carolina and Virginia 
more humane and civilized conditions exist." 

" To what extent are political rights given your race in the 
South, doctor ? " 

" In North Carolina our people can speak and vote as freely as 
in New York. In other Southern States we can't. The ballot 
in North Carolina is a free one, though there may be a little dif- 
ficulty in always getting a fair count. In public discussions we 
exercise the utmost freedom, but I can't say that much for the 
whole South, especially in Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, 
Louisiana and Georgia. In those States there is not so much 
freedom of discussion, and the ballot is more trammeled. If we 
are going to have a ballot at all it should be free anduntrammeled." 

Thus much upon this subject from an intelligent 
negro. And even Mr. Herbert is moved to say — page 
67 of "Why the solid South?" — that "the colored 
population is progressing everywhere in the State " 
(Alabama) "slowly in the black belt, where the negro 
predominates ; much more rapidly in the counties 
where the whites outnumber the blacks. Their 
progress is marked in morality, intelligence and 
propriety." 

And, again, Mr. Herbert, from the same page: " It 
may be mentioned as a significant fact, that Nathan 
Alexander, recently appointed by President Harrison 
as receiver of public moneys at Montgomery, gave a 
bond of $60,000, and it is said that all his bonds- 
men are colored men. They qualified in the sum of 
$120,000." 

The evidence of the capacity of the negroes of the 
South, and of their ability to intelligently discharge 



So What is the Situation Noiv ? 

the duties of citizenship could be very greatly ex- 
tended, but it is not considered necessary to do so. 
The truth is, that the old ante-belliun prejudices of the 
dominant white element still control in some of the 
Southern States. They shape laws and create senti- 
ment, and the whilom slave will not receive from this 
element anything approaching a full recognition of 
his right to vote as freely and unreservedly as that 
right is exercised by his neighbors of the Caucasian 
race. 

Gov. Tillman, of South Carolina, expressed the sit- 
uation in that State when interviewed by a correspond- 
ent of the New York World in June, 1892 : 

" Are you bidding for the negro vote, Mr. Tillman ? " 
" No, I don't want it. There are very few colored votes 
polled nowadays and I make no bids for those." 

Happily, not all of the late rebellious States are so 
joined to their idols as are South Carolina and Miss- 
issippi, and certain portions of Georgia, Alabama and 
Louisiana. 

And here it is hoped that a brief personal allusion 
will be pardoned. The writer has never run for a 
political office but once and then was beaten. In 
1876 — two years after the reconstruction period in 
Arkansas had passed — the Republicans of that State 
saw fit to place him in nomination for the governor- 
ship. At the same time a full State ticket was put 
into the field, but it was defeated, although the aver- 
age vote cast for the nominees was 34,974. 

Arkansas then, as now, was far in advance of several 
other of the Southern States ; and while there is still 
some friction in the State, politically, and an element 
there that is disposed to discriminate against the negro 



Arkansas. 8i 

in the matter of suffrage, and the election laws are not 
what they should be, yet Arkansas is steadily growing 
in population and wealth. 

The census of 1890 gave the State an additional 
Congressman, and it now has six. In 1880 the popu- 
lation of the State was 802,525. In 1890, 1,128,179, 
an increase in ten years of 325,654. 

In 1880 the population of the State of Mississippi 
was 1,131,597. In 1890, 1,289,600, an increase during 
the same period of time of only 168,003, and yet 
Mississippi is, by ig years, the older State. 

At the election of 1892, when her six members of 
the Fifty-third Congress were chosen, there were cast 
in the State of Arkansas for Congressmen, 138,150 
votes. 

In Mississippi, where seven Congressmen were elected 
in the same year, and have taken their seats, only 
^1,024 votes were cast for all Congressional candidates. 
The average vote for the districts that elected the 
seven Mississippians was 7,289; while in Arkansas the 
average vote, similarly considered, was 23,025. In 
other words, o?ie vote in Mississippi went as far in 
electing members of the Fifty-third Congress as three 
votes in Arkansas. 

These two States lie in the Mississippi Valley. They 
are separated alone by the " Father of Waters," and 
are largely alike in soil and productions. Cotton is 
the great staple, and in fineness and length of the 
fiber of the product, these States are only surpassed 
by the celebrated Sea Island district on the Atlantic 
Coast. 

Arkansas as a home for men reared in the North 
and accustomed to think and act, politically, with the 



82 What is tJic Situation Now? 

freedom born of independence, is very far superior to 
her neighbor across the river ; and though the State 
contributes to the unfortunate Southern solidarity that 
now prevails, it is hoped that the time is not far 
distant, when it will be insisted upon that all over the 
South voting shall be full and free, and ballots counted 
as they are cast, without regard to the race or color 
of the voter. 



There are two remedies. The Fourteenth Amend- 
ment of the constitution provides : That when the 
right to vote at any election for the choice of 
electors for President and Vice-President of the 
United States, Representatives in Congress, the 
executive and judicial officers of a State, or the 
members of the legislature thereof is denied to 
any of the male inhabitants of such State, or in 
any way abridged, except for participation in rebel- 
lion or other crime, the basis of representation therein 
shall be reduced in the proportion which the num- 
ber of such male citizens shall bear to the whole num- 
ber of male citizens, twenty-one years of age, in such 
State. 

The enforcement of this provision of the Constitu- 
tion of the United States is one remedy, and the right 
to such enforcement has been emphasized by interpre- 
tation. 

" The thirteenth and fourteenth amendments to the United 
States Constitution raised the colored race from the condition of 
inferiority and servitude in which most of them had previously 
stood into perfect equality of rights with all the other persons 
within the jurisdiction of the States." — Ex-parle Virginia, lOO 
U . S. Supreme Court Reports, 339. 



Re))iedies. 83 

And again, and even more comprehensively : 

" With respect to citizenship and civil rights, the colored race 
is placed upon a level with the white, as provided by the United 
States Constitution and sections 1977 and 1978 of the United 
States Statutes." — Virginia v. Rives, lOO U. S. Supreme Court 
Reports, 313. 

The fourth section of the fourth article of the con- 
stitution runs in part, and as a distinct provision as 
follows: 

' ' The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union 
a Republican form of government." 

And while the law-making power of a State may 
neglect or refuse to initiate a movement for the re- 
moval of crimes agamst the electoral franchise — 
crimes that are a subversion of Republican govern- 
ment — State legislatures are still within the control of 
the central power, though State constitutions may not 
restrain them. 

In the organic law of this nation certain vital prin- 
ciples are embodied that cannot be permanently over- 
ridden. Abuses of legislative power that discriminate 
in citizenship and nullify or impair the rights of a cer- 
tain class of persons, when no wrong has been com- 
mitted by them, cannot long obtain. The removal of 
these abuses may not be immediate or sudden, but 
their destruction must come, and the unjust discrim- 
ination that now exists in some of the Gulf States be 
superseded by a reign of law and order that will fully 
protect every man at the polls, no matter what his 
color, or for whom he proposes to vote. In legislation 
enforcing this provision of the constitution is held the 
second remedy. It is the more thorough of the two, 
and when doing its perfect work, there will be no re- 



84 14^/iat is the Situation Now ? 

duced representation in the Southern States; and their 
citizens, whether white or black, will vote as freely as 
in New York, Ohio or Illinois. 

While it is very desirable that this great crime 
against suffrage should correct itself, it is not doing 
so. There are numerous Congressional Districts in 
the Southern States which have practically become 
mere "Pocket Boroughs," easy now to manage, and 
quite satisfactory to the personal ambition of those 
who represent (?) them. The incumbents have far 
more power upon the floor of the House and in com- 
mittees than they are entitled to, and this unjustifiable 
excess in voting strength is not only an outrage upon 
the Northern States, regardless of party ^ but also upon 
those States in the South where elections are full and 
fair. The exigency has come when, in some form, 
the strong arm of direct and positive law should be 
uplifted and the blow fall. This or that measure 
already suggested, may or may not be wise, neverthe- 
less the skill of our legislators is certainly equal to 
the occasion, and courage and unanimity will cut the 
knot that is now entangling the Southern States. 

The Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution pro- 
vides that the right of citizens of the United States to 
vote, shall not be denied or abridged by the United 
States or by any State, on account of race, color, or 
previous condition of servitude, and that Congress 
shall have power to enforce the article by appropriate 
legislation. 

This amendment is not an opinion. It is a com- 
mand — the highest expression of the will of the 
nation — the most forceful exposition of a fundamental 
purpose. It was created to be observed, and, above all. 



Re Die dies. 85 

those men should not be permitted to disregard it 
who, during four years of bloody and vindictive war, 
sought to destroy the Constitution itself of which this 
amendment is now as binding upon the people of the 
United States as any other portion of the instrument. 
Congress has power to provide the remedy. Will 
that power be exercised ? 

Buffalo, N. Y., March, 1894. 



INDEX. 

A. 

Act apportioning representation in Fifty-third Congress : 
Comparison between North and South in elections 
thereunder and in Construction of Congressional 

^ V. . • 48-62 

Committees, ^ 

Arkansas, events in. bearing on Civil Government from 

•• 1863 to passage of Reconstruction Acts of Congress, 7-19 
Comparison of current expenses of State Government, 
last year of Republican rule in reconstruction period, 

with first year of Democratic rule, 21-23 

Holford and other State bonds and Legislative investi- 
gation affecting Democrats as well as Republicans, 24-32 
What was accomplished by the Republican Government 
of the State during reconstruction period, accom- 
panied by statement of specific acts of Democratic^ ^ 

extravagance and mismanagement 3-4 

Comparison of Arkansas with Mississippi 80-82 

B. 

Buffalo Express, report of interview with prominent and 
educated colored men as to present condition of 
negroes in the Southern States 76-79 



C. 

Congress, power of. to apply remedy for existing irregu- 
larities and injustice in political affairs in the South- 

... 82-85 
ern States. 



FioRiDA, provisions of election laws therein, and election 

• J 67-60 

outrages committed, 

K. 
Ku-Klux Ki.AN, origin and character of 34,35 



Iv. 

Louisiana, power of Governor in appointment of election 

officers, 69 

ML. 

Mississippi, Constitution of, adopted 1890, and hostile atti- 
tude towards negroes as citizens; the great injustice 
done and continuing with reference to this element 

in the citizenship of the State, 62-67 

Comparison with Arkansas, 80-82 

N. 

Negro, capacity of, advancement of, since becoming a 

free man, fitness for citizenship, 76-79 

R. 

Remedies for existing inequalities and injustice in manage- 
ment of political affairs in the Southern States, . 82-85 

S. 

South Carolina, provisions in election laws of, and com- 
ments thereon, 69-73 

W. 

" Why the Solid South ?" book published at Baltimore, 

1890 ; its contributors, and what is claimed for it, . 5,6 

Wm. M. Fishback writes for Arkansas ; efforts in that 
State of Confederate authorities, civil and military, to 
prevent organization of President Lincoln's loyal 
State government ; other events in Arkansas bearing 
on civil government from 1863 to passage of Recon- 
struction Acts of Congress, 7-19 

Why this book is not entitled to the confidence of those 
to whom dedicated, " the business men of the 
North," 5-47 



I 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




